California man convicted of two decades-old murders with investigative genetic technology
A California man described by prosecutors as a sexually driven serial killer has been convicted of murdering two women in the ‘80s, marking the first cases that have been solved in Los Angeles County with the help of investigative genetic technology.
Horace Van Vaultz Jr. on Thursday was found guilty of first-degree murder with the special-circumstance allegations that the crimes involved multiple murders, rape and sodomy, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said in a statement.
The charges stem from the slaying of 22-year-old Mary Duggan, who was found dead inside the trunk of her car in a parking lot in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank. He was also convicted of the 1981 killing of 20-year-old Selena Keough. Her body was discovered hidden beneath bushes near an apartment building in Montclair, located in San Bernardino County.
Both cases remained a mystery for decades, but authorities were recently able to link Vaultz to the slayings with the help of genetic genealogy, which relies on genealogical websites to identify potential relatives of a suspect based on DNA collected at a crime scene.
“Using the latest in technology and forensics, we were able to secure a conviction against someone who targeted young women,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. “I hope that today’s guilty verdict provides some comfort to the victims’ families who have waited more than three decades to see this result.”
Vaultz was arrested in 2019 and has remained behind bars ever since. During his criminal trial, his defense team unsuccessfully argued that Vaultz, a self-described swinger, had consensual sex with the women, but that someone else killed them.
Authorities are also investigating his involvement in the death of 25-year-old Janna Rowe, who was strangled and dumped on a pile of trash. Vaultz was acquitted of her death in 1988, but DNA evidence was not used at trial. He can’t be retried.
With News Wire Services
