Arlington Police Solve 1999 Murder Cold Case With DNA
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ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) - After more than 15 years, investigators in Arlington now, definitively know who killed Tami King.
King was found murdered in Arlington on February 28, 1999. While there were no solid leads or suspects in the case detectives were able to DNA evidence from the woman's body. The profile was entered in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), but matched no one in the system.
The Tami King case eventually went cold.
Flash forward to August 2015. Arlington police were contacted that their CODIS information from the King case matched that of a Fort Worth man. The DNA profile belonged to Jerry Shorts.
Detectives were able to interview Shorts, but when they asked him for a voluntary DNA sample he refused.
It was while investigators worked to get a search warrant for Shorts' DNA, that they learned he committed suicide on September 3.
Detectives still got the warrant and DNA from Shorts posthumously. It matched the sample taken from the Tami King case. Officials say these latest events have helped bring "closure to Ms. King's family and friends."
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