Nearly five decades after a teenage babysitter was found stabbed to death, there is a suspect in her murder, Colorado police said.
DNA from a bloodstain in the blue jumpsuit of 14-year-old Maria Loraine Honzell, helped investigators identify William Charles Kernan Jr., who died in 2010, as a suspect in her 1977 murder, the Colorado Springs Police Department said in a news release from May 8th.
“The family and friends of Maria Honzell waited more than 47 years to get justice for Maria,” police said.
On the night of Feb. 7, 1977, Maria was babysitting for a neighbor at her apartment complex, police said.
When the mother arrived home shortly before 11:30 p.m., police said they found Maria dead in the master bedroom.
The children, ages 6 and 8, were not injured and were “asleep in bed” when their mother arrived home, police said.
Police arrived shortly after and found Maria dead “with multiple stab wounds to the chest and neck,” according to police.
The county medical examiner ruled Maria’s death a homicide, police said.
Despite the thorough investigation, which included reports, evidence and interviews, police said the case went cold.
With the advancement of DNA technology, police said they submitted several pieces of evidence to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for analysis, and a man’s DNA profile was created using a blood stain on Maria’s clothing.
The profile, however, did not match any profiles in the databases, including those in the Combined DNA Index System.
Then, in 2019, police said investigators turned their efforts to genetic genealogy.
Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing along with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related.
“For forensic investigations, (genetic genealogy) is used to generate highly informative clues about the possible identity of an unknown victim or attacker,” police said.
After sending blood from Maria’s blue jumpsuit to Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based genetic genealogy company, police said the organization created a “genetic data profile” for the unknown man.
The profile was then uploaded to public databases in hopes of finding someone who could share the man’s DNA, police said.
“An extensive search” led investigators to Kernan, police said.
Because Kernan was cremated and has no living relatives, police said they were unable to use DNA to confirm he was the man in Maria’s case.
Police, however, said they had confirmed that Kernan was “a student at a local college and an acquaintance of the woman for whom Maria Honzell was babysitting on the night of her murder.”
The investigation also showed he had been to the apartment complex previously, police said.
Detectives asked the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office to review the case using genetic genealogy results that pointed to Kernan as a suspect, police said.
“After the review was completed, the District Attorney’s Office is confident that the person responsible for the murder of Maria Honzell is William C. Kernan Jr.,” police said.
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