but it looks like that's about to change. 20 years later they finally have a suspect and have reopened her case. I don't know how to feel about this

Quote :

"DNA reignites cold case in LR Sister haunted anew as suspect emerges in ’90 slaying LITTLE ROCK — After her sister’s murder, Vicki Naftzger created her own horror movie that she’s been replaying in her mind for nearly 20 years. “I learned how to turn the volume down,” she said recently, “but I couldn’t turn it off.” To piece the story together, she used information that detectives gave her and her imagination. But most of all, she used the indelible flashes of what she saw July 1, 1990, when she discovered her sister, Treva Parks, lying face down in her bed, naked and covered in blood, dead. Police early on ruled out a handful of suspects, and years passed without any breaks in the case. Vicki gave up ever knowing the answers to the questions that haunted her: What happened? Who did this? A few days ago, she got what may be the answer to at least one question. photo As part of an automated cross-checking system, a “DNA hit” sprang from a database at the state Crime Laboratory, stunning detectives and forensic scientists familiar with the case. Tests indicate that blood on a towel left in 33-year-old Treva’s Little Rock apartment belonged to John B. Yancey Jr., a felon with a string of burglary and theft convictions. Yancey is in an Arkansas prison for unrelated crimes. Vicki steadied herself against a surge of fresh pain as detectives detailed developments in the case. “I’ve learned how to dampen that feeling. You can’t feel the pain all the time.” But the news offered Vicki little comfort and an unsettling sense of doubt. She’s never heard of Yancey. And he doesn’t fit into her now-familiar horror movie. photo Site of slaying Shortly after Treva’s murder, Yancey, now 40, entered the Arkansas prison system for burglary and theft convictions in Little Rock, where he was living. After his October 2000 release, Yancey made his home in Louann. Yancey drew attention from law enforcement again on Feb. 21, 2009, when a dramatic turn of events put him on the Camden Police Department’s radar. On that afternoon, police say, Yancey flew into an intoxicated rage, bit a chunk out of his wife’s face the size of a small saucer and led police on a high-speed chase. One of his children, not wearing a seat belt, was in the car. The chase ended when the engine of Yancey’s car seized up after he repeatedly rammed two police cars that had boxed him in. As officers pointed guns at him, Yancey used the child in the car as a human shield. Camden Sgt. Tami Poole, who is the department’s domestic violence specialist, called Yancey “a monster.” “He almost hit three people who were pedestrians. He [rammed] our officers. He bit part of [his wife’s] forehead and eyebrow in a fit of rage. She has to have cosmetic surgery because of it.” After his arrest, which required the use of stun guns, Yancey was booked into the Ouachita County jail. On Sept. 21, he was convicted of first-degree domestic battery and aggravated assault. He was transferred to the state Department of Correction’s diagnostic unit on Oct. 1. A few days later, he was transferred to the Varner Unit in Grady, where he remains. Prison employees swabbed Yancey’s cheek for a DNAsample when he entered the state’s system, as they do with all convicted felons. His DNA was entered into the state’s database in early December. Soon after, lab officials discovered that his DNA matched DNA collected from Treva’s apartment after her 1990 slaying. They notified Little Rock detectives of the “hit” on Dec. 14. Detectives obtained a warrant on Jan. 12 to have Yancey transported from Varner to Little Rock so they could obtain a new DNA swab to confirm the earlier hit from the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national database. The confirmation swab is routine. Detectives also obtained a fresh set of fingerprints from Yancey to compare with ones found in Treva’s apartment. On Friday, police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said detectives are actively working with prosecutors to make an arrest in Treva’s death “very soon.” Hastings declined to name the suspect. Although Yancey had been in state custody in the 1990s, his DNA hadn’t been collected before October 2009. When Yancey served time before, state laws required that DNA be collected from only those convicted of sexual and violent crimes. In 2001, legislators expanded the law to include those convicted of burglary, but Yancey had been released Oct. 25, 2000. His parole period ended on May 3, 2001. Because so many years passed without movement in Treva’s case, her family and others came to assume that her killer was dead. Because of the highly personal nature of the violence committed against Treva, they also assumed that her killer was someone sheknew very well. Detectives long believed that Treva’s death was a crime of passion or jealousy because she had been stabbed in the face - an act rarely committed by a stranger. On that hot July day, police combed the bloody one-bedroom apartment at 120 1 /2 S. Pine St. for clues. Analysts at the state Crime Lab processed dozens of pieces of evidence, including a bloody towel found next to the front door, using forensic tools available in 1990. They then carefully packed up the evidence for safekeeping. “In 1990, DNA was on the radar, but it was [a less precise] technology,” Crime Lab Director Kermit Channell said. “It wasn’t being utilized in all crime laboratories around the country, so it was still early for that.” In 2001, when DNA was added to the lab’s toolbox, analysts revisited the case and were able to extract an unidentified man’s DNA from the towel. Police used the DNA to rule out Treva’s ex-boyfriend, a man her family long suspected killed her. After the boyfriend was ruled out, the investigation stalled. Lab technicians entered the DNA, which investigators believe belonged to the killer, into the national CODIS database. They crossed fingers that someday a suspect would surface. Channell said Friday that Little Rock police detectives deserve praise for doggedly pursuing Treva’s case over the years. Although Channell started working on a collection of challenging cold cases when he became director in 2007, Treva’s case wasn’t among them. “They’ve done the heavy lifting, truly, in this case in terms of the investigative aspect,” he said of Little Rock police. “They resubmitted a lot of the evidence. There are things that we can do now that we couldn’t have done in 1990.” The crime-scene crew deserves a lot of credit, he added, for the painstaking care it took in collecting evidence in 1990. “One of the problems historically around the country has been collection and longterm storage of evidence,” Channell said. “They clearly did a good job in this case.” After Yancey surfaced as a suspect, laboratory leaders were eager to sit down with detectives and “put their heads together” to make sure they had the strongest case possible, he said. “An old case is very difficult to go back to, but this case demonstrates that it’s well worth the time and energy youput into it,” Channell said. The day after learning of the DNA hit, Vicki Naftzger stared at a recent mug shot of Yancey and said she wasn’t sure what to make of him. She hadn’t seen his face or heard his name before police called her. “I’m still so doubtful,” she said. “Yes, it’s possible Treva knew him.” The week before Treva was murdered, she had visited her parents in her hometown of Pineville, La., for a combination Father’s Day/Treva’s birthday celebration. She was four days from her 34th birthday when she was killed. Treva’s parents, Harry and Nell Parks, still live in the house where Treva and her three siblings grew up. Two weeks ago, Nell sat in their living room and pondered the news that police had identified a suspect. The news that Treva’s murder could have been a random crime surprised the Parkses, who were convinced that her killer was someone she knew, and they had their own short list of suspects. Occasionally, they would make their own limited efforts to find the killer. “We dabbled in it once in a while,” said Harry, who was certain that eventually somebody was going to find the person who murdered his daughter. Nell said she isn’t bitter. In the early days, she said, “We didn’t know who to be bitter towards.” Although the family now has a face and a name, it still doesn’t have an answer to one of the biggest questions. Why? For Vicki, it’s important that her sister’s gruesome murder doesn’t overshadow her memory of Treva. A trusting and free-spirited soul, Treva had found “the man of her dreams” during a visit to Pineville shortly before her death. “What she wanted to be was a wife and mother,” Vicki said as she shuffled through photographs of Treva holding Vicki’s now-grown children. “She was taken from me, and she was taken from my children.” Vicki clutched her two daughters close to her on her living room couch as her eyes welled with tears. Vicki readily concedes that she’s an overprotective mother. “Life is fragile. [Violence] doesn’t just happen to someone else.” Information for this article was contributed by Jay Grelen of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette."

1/24/2010 11:39:17 PM

Yo holmes to bel air



[Edited on January 24, 2010 at 11:44 PM. Reason : .]

1/24/2010 11:41:07 PM

Wow. Keep us posted.

1/24/2010 11:43:01 PM

Wow

1/24/2010 11:43:05 PM

did you seriously post this in Chit Chat?


seriously?

1/24/2010 11:44:00 PM

I gotta admit, I was expecting "Yo holmes to Bel Air" also.

1/24/2010 11:44:17 PM

words

1/24/2010 11:44:26 PM

Uhh....

Thanks for sharing?

1/24/2010 11:44:53 PM

Damn the suspect is a real piece of shit.

^^^^I'm also a little surprised she posted it here.

[Edited on January 24, 2010 at 11:48 PM. Reason : .]

1/24/2010 11:45:01 PM

That is really sad.

1/24/2010 11:45:42 PM

tl; dr

1/24/2010 11:49:09 PM

Whatever else may be true about this thread or the posts in it, or for that matter the original poster

I wish they could hang him, but I'll settle for the needle.

1/24/2010 11:50:50 PM

wow. hope your family can have some closure if this investigation leads to something definite.

1/24/2010 11:52:29 PM

Quote :

"bit a chunk out of his wife’s face the size of a small saucer "

Glad that guy's off the street for her sake.

Jen, I hope you and your family will be able to find closure.

1/24/2010 11:58:17 PM

Capital Punishment

1/25/2010 12:09:37 AM

Quote :

"did you seriously post this in Chit Chat? seriously?"

1/25/2010 12:15:47 AM

chit chat is serious business so yeah, i seriously d

1/25/2010 12:22:32 AM

Quote :

"did you seriously post this in Chit Chat? seriously? "

Even I know better than to post my family's laundry in this hellhole.

1/25/2010 12:24:25 AM

jesus christ, please hope the state puts a needle in his arm

1/25/2010 12:24:58 AM

f that s

she can post this where ever she wants, hope everything in this situation works out the way you like it to jen

theres not really an emoticon that expresses me right now, but i think you get the idea

1/25/2010 12:27:15 AM

Quote :

"As officers pointed guns at him, Yancey used the child in the car as a human shield. Camden Sgt. Tami Poole, who is the department’s domestic violence specialist, called Yancey “a monster.” “He almost hit three people who were pedestrians. He [rammed] our officers. He bit part of [his wife’s] forehead and eyebrow in a fit of rage. She has to have cosmetic surgery because of it.”"

Sounds like a real charmer.

1/25/2010 12:30:53 AM

stupid internet

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 12:31 AM. Reason : d]

1/25/2010 12:31:15 AM

i thought this was about

1/25/2010 12:34:41 AM

i don't mean to make light of the situation...

but this sounds like a good idea for a movie.

get al pacino on the line stat.

1/25/2010 12:53:43 AM

1/25/2010 2:10:24 AM

this is fucked up

1/25/2010 2:53:57 AM

That is a hell of a story. Certainly one that I would imagine seeing on TV at some point on one of those Discovery Channel specials or something.

1/25/2010 3:09:05 AM

Here's this guy's info with the Arkansas State Prison: http://www.adc.arkansas.gov/inmate_info/search.php?dcnum=095844

Looks like a real winner:

1/25/2010 6:19:11 AM

ibt
asshole who makes jokes about this.

[Edited on January 25, 2010 at 7:50 AM. Reason : ...this thread is so sad...and I am sorry for what happened to your family Jen.]

1/25/2010 7:50:01 AM

exactly why i was questioning her forum of choice

1/25/2010 8:05:28 AM

I was expecting a hillbilly lookin white guy... hmmm

1/25/2010 8:33:57 AM

wow.. i'll read it later

1/25/2010 8:36:20 AM

^^ Racist.

1/25/2010 9:46:45 AM

Quote :

"I was expecting a hillbilly lookin white guy"

1/25/2010 11:03:58 AM

Quote :

"Jen, I hope you and your family will be able to find closure."

1/25/2010 11:10:39 AM

^

1/25/2010 11:35:55 AM

did you seriously post this in Chit Chat?


seriously?

1/25/2010 11:38:21 AM

wow. I hope everything buffs out.

1/25/2010 12:00:55 PM

Quote :

"Here's this guy's info with the Arkansas State Prison:"

Hey, thank you for finding that. I looked for his info for a while yesterday and couldn't find anything, I especially wanted his photo.

1/25/2010 12:34:22 PM

Quote :

"I was expecting a hillbilly lookin white guy... hmmm "

we whites iz crazier! (usually)

1/25/2010 1:32:58 PM

Yikes Jen...what a curve ball. Hope all fairs well.

1/25/2010 1:39:23 PM

oh yes, and plz to prayers to your family.

1/25/2010 1:48:08 PM

so...




what's the lounge really for anyway?

1/25/2010 2:20:50 PM

1) tl;dr
b) chit chat???

1/25/2010 2:46:12 PM

why is this in chit chat?

1/25/2010 3:00:52 PM

Craziness.

And:

Quote :

""I was expecting a hillbilly lookin white guy" "

1/25/2010 3:25:47 PM

Any news?

3/17/2010 7:18:14 PM

wow, i missed this the first time around. I hope you and your family are coping as best your can.

3/17/2010 8:22:19 PM

This sucks.

Quote :

"On that afternoon, police say, Yancey flew into an intoxicated rage, bit a chunk out of his wife’s face the size of a small saucer and led police on a high-speed chase. One of his children, not wearing a seat belt, was in the car. The chase ended when the engine of Yancey’s car seized up after he repeatedly rammed two police cars that had boxed him in. As officers pointed guns at him, Yancey used the child in the car as a human shield. "

Shit, this guy is crazy.

3/17/2010 8:27:25 PM

Murder is a strong word

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

3/17/2010 8:55:59 PM