DNA Breakthrough Shatters 1964 Child Murder

One child’s final walk home in 1964 stayed unresolved for six decades—until modern DNA genealogy finally put a name to the evil.

Story Snapshot

Mary Theresa Simpson, 12, vanished in Elmira, New York on March 15, 1964, while walking home from relatives near East Market and Harriet Streets.
Her body was found March 19, 1964, in a wooded area near Combs Hill Road in Southport; the crime involved sexual assault and strangulation, and her mouth had been packed with twigs and dirt.
Investigators conducted extensive interviews in 1964, but the case went cold without the forensic tools that exist today.
Elmira Police reopened the case in 2023, sent evidence to Othram for advanced DNA work, and the FBI used forensic genetic genealogy to identify a suspect.
The identified suspect is deceased; a press conference is scheduled for February 10, 2026, to publicly announce details.

The four days that haunted Elmira

Mary Theresa Simpson disappeared on March 15, 1964, after leaving relatives and starting the short, ordinary walk home near East Market and Harriet Streets in Elmira. Her father reported her missing that evening, launching the kind of town-wide worry that spreads fast when a child doesn’t come home. Four days later, a hiker and his sons found her body in woods near Combs Hill Road in Southport, ending hope and beginning decades of unanswered questions.

The brutality described in the reporting still lands like a punch: Mary was sexually assaulted and strangled, and someone stuffed her mouth with twigs and dirt. Her remains were partially concealed under debris and stones, a detail that reads like panic and calculation at the same time. That combination is exactly why cases like this burrow into community memory. People don’t forget a crime that seems both personal and opportunistic, committed within reach of everyday life.

Why 1964 police work hit a wall

Elmira Police worked the case hard in the era’s terms, conducting hundreds of interviews. That mattered then, and it still matters now because witness statements, timelines, and early evidence handling often decide whether a future breakthrough is even possible. The limit was technology. In 1964, investigators leaned on eyewitness recollection, tips, and basic lab work—tools that can’t reliably identify a stranger who leaves little behind, or confirm a suspicion beyond reasonable doubt.

Cold cases rarely go cold because detectives stop caring; they go cold because the available facts stop moving. Tips dry up. People relocate. Memories distort. Suspects die. The passage of time turns a homicide into an heirloom of grief, passed from parents to children who never knew the victim but inherit the fear. Mary’s case became one of those long-simmering files: solved in the sense that everyone believed someone did it, unsolved in the only sense that matters—no name.

The 2023 reboot: evidence meets modern DNA

Elmira Police reopened the investigation in 2023 and sent evidence to Othram, a Texas-based lab known for Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing®. That phrase isn’t marketing fluff; it signals a capability that old-fashioned DNA approaches often can’t deliver when samples are degraded or limited. The testing was supported by Season of Justice, a funding model that matters because many departments sit on evidence they can’t afford to analyze with cutting-edge methods.

Othram’s work produced a usable DNA profile, and the FBI’s forensic genetic genealogy team used that profile for lead generation. Genetic genealogy doesn’t “guess” a killer; it builds a family-tree roadmap from shared DNA, narrowing toward a person who fits time, place, and opportunity. Done responsibly, it’s a disciplined blend of science and legwork: lab results, database comparisons, genealogical research, and then old-school confirmation steps to ensure the suspect truly matches the forensic evidence.

Closure without court: a suspect identified, but deceased

The reporting says investigators identified the person responsible and confirmed the suspect is deceased. For families, that fact cuts both ways. A name ends the torment of “who,” but death ends the possibility of cross-examination, plea deals, or a jury verdict that publicly affirms the truth. For the public, it can feel like justice got away. Common sense says otherwise: accountability begins with clarity, and naming the responsible party anchors the record against rumor.

American conservative instincts tend to align with two simple principles here: protect the innocent and respect facts. Genetic genealogy can serve both when law enforcement applies it narrowly to violent crimes, documents its process, and avoids turning investigative tools into broad surveillance. The collaboration described—local police, the FBI, and a specialized lab—looks like competent government doing a limited job well. That’s the kind of public-private partnership most taxpayers can support: targeted, measurable, and focused on victims.

What this case signals for other long-buried crimes

Mary Simpson’s case also sits inside a larger pattern: old crimes becoming solvable when biology finally speaks clearly. Othram’s work in New York has reportedly helped resolve multiple cases using similar technology, showing how one successful workflow can turn into a repeatable playbook. The playbook still depends on fundamentals—preserved evidence, careful chain-of-custody, and investigators willing to reopen files that offer little glory and plenty of heartbreak.

February 10, 2026, is slated for a Chemung County District Attorney’s Office press conference where officials plan to share the suspect’s identity and details. That moment will be more than a headline. It will be Elmira hearing, at last, the piece that has been missing since 1964. The lingering question after the name drops won’t be “why did they bother?” It will be “which other families are one lab result away from the same reckoning?”

COLD CASE SOLVED! 1964 Murder of Mary Simpson, 12: Killer Named After 60 Years! https://t.co/LBLf3a8zGH via @crimeonlinenews #bodybags

— Crime Online (@crimeonlinenews) February 10, 2026

Expect the announcement to spark a second wave of scrutiny: how the suspect connected to Elmira, what earlier leads did or didn’t capture, and what evidence survived long enough to speak in 2023. Those answers won’t resurrect Mary, and they won’t satisfy everyone’s idea of justice. They will do something essential, though: convert a town’s oldest question into a documented fact, and prove that time doesn’t automatically protect the guilty.