Idaho Authorities Use DNA to Resolve Chilly-Case Homicide of Wilma Mobley

• Idaho authorities mentioned they’ve solved the 28-year-old cold-case homicide of Wilma Mobley.
• Mobley, 84, was strangled and attacked with an “axe kind instrument” in 1995.
• Police discovered DNA on the clasp of Mobley’s underwear that matched her neighbor, Danny Lee Kennison.

When 84-year-old Wilma Mobley was discovered lifeless in her Idaho dwelling in August of 1995, investigators appeared into three doable suspects, together with her neighbor, Danny Lee Kennison. However no conclusive proof emerged, and the case grew chilly. 

Mobley had been strangled and attacked with an “axe kind instrument,” and her dying remained a thriller till December 18, 2023, the Jerome Police Division mentioned in a press launch this week.

Idaho State Police Lab technicians who analyzed the almost three-decade-old proof discovered “a major quantity of a DNA profile” on a clasp of Mobley’s undergarments that matched Kennison, the press launch mentioned.

Police mentioned the DNA profile excluded all different doable suspects that had beforehand been recognized, and no different DNA profiles had been discovered within the out there proof.

Authorities mentioned Kennison and Mobley had no private relationship past being neighbors. Kennison died by suicide in 2001. 

Sgt. Clinton Wagner of the Jerome Police Division first picked up Mobley’s chilly case in June 2022 and inquired about submitting the proof for DNA evaluation, police mentioned. 

Wagner labored with lab technicians to overview the out there proof and choose objects for testing and submitted them to the Idaho State Police Forensic Lab in March of 2023.

“Developments in DNA science have the facility to unveil the reality even after years of uncertainty. Science, when mixed with relentless investigative dedication, can unravel mysteries and produce closure to victims and their households,” the Idaho State Police mentioned in a assertion.

Wagner met with Mobley’s relations on December 19 to offer them the information and inform them that the case was closed.