Cold Case Arrest After Almost 40 Years

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ABC5 News Team

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Police say they have arrested a Des Moines man in connection with the 1974 killing of a 17-year-old girl in rural Wapello County.

The Department of Criminal Investigation announced Tuesday night that officers arrested 66-year-old Robert Eugene Pilcher in connection with the killing of Mary Jayne Jones of Ottumwa.

Wapello County sheriff's deputies and DCI agents arrested Pilcher at a Des Moines motel.

Jones' body was discovered April 9, 1974, in a farmhouse. She had been shot to death and sexually assaulted.

The case wasn't solved but thanks to funding by a federal grant from 2009 to 2011, the DCI took another look and linked Pilcher to the case through DNA evidence.

Pilcher was held in the Wapello County Jail on $1 million bond.

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Cold Case Arrest After Almost 40 Years - ABC5 News Des Moines, IA

Cold Case Arrest After Almost 40 Years

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