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16-Jul-2024
TrueAllele solves 1963 Winnebago cold case using “inconclusive” DNA
The DNA Cold Case Problem
On the night of June 13, 1963, a white car pulled up to an Enco gas station along an old Wisconsin highway. Oshkosh station owner Wayne Pratt went over to help. The station lights went dark. Pratt’s wife later found his body in a storage room under a blanket. He had been stabbed over 50 times.
After interviewing potential suspects, the case went cold. The lack of physical evidence and eyewitnesses impeded the homicide investigation. The police had questioned 75 people and given 25 lie detector tests.
Winnebago County reopened the cold case in 2012. The Sheriff sent old blood items to the local crime lab for DNA testing. But their results were inconclusive.
In 2015, and again in 2023, a private forensic lab retested the items, finding a degraded low-level DNA mixture of several people. But the lab couldn’t interpret this complex DNA data; the evidence remained inconclusive.
The TrueAllele® Intelligence Solution
On April 3, 2024, the Sheriff sent Cybergenetics DNA data from the blanket. The company’s powerful TrueAllele technology could use all the evidence data, unlike less capable forensic software. TrueAllele successfully unmixed the degraded low-level three-person mixture into three component genotypes.
TrueAllele made the DNA identification. Comparing evidence genotypes with DNA from multiple suspects, the computer found an answer. Cybergenetics’ June 12th report statistically connected suspect William Doxtator to the blanket.
This new DNA evidence, together with information from original reports and witness statements, strongly supported the Sheriff’s Office’s conclusion to refer a count of First-degree Intentional Homicide to the District Attorney’s Office.
Sixty years after the murder, TrueAllele had helped close the unsolvable DNA case. Although Doxtator had passed away in 2022, District Attorney Eric Sparr said there would be sufficient evidence to pursue a homicide charge were he alive today.
Links
- DNA a game-changer in solving decades-old murder cases - USA Today
- Suspect emerges in 1963 gas station killing - Post Crescent
- 55 years and counting: Police still seek answers to 1963 gas station murder - Post Crescent
- Investigators say Bowler man was suspect in newly-solved cold case murder in Winnebago County - WSAW