A Texas woman and a Wyoming man are facing charges after being linked through DNA to an Oklahoma cold case murder 36 years ago.
Willie Moore, 61, and Erlene Lee, 58, were indicted Thursday on murder charges in the Sept. 18, 1983, death of Anthony Baltes at the Sandman Motel in Tulsa, Okla., according to reports. Moore was arrested in Wyoming; Lee was arrested in Texas. The indictment was unsealed Friday.
The 31-year-old Baltes was the victim of a robbery, authorities said. He had been tied up, beaten and strangled.
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The arrests were the result of advances in DNA technology, Senior Deputy Oklahoma Attorney General Joy Thorp told the Tulsa World.
“DNA has been uncovered after many years, which, that wasn’t existent back in 1983,” she said. “It is now.”
“It’s a daunting task, but a rewarding task,”
— Cold case Detective Eddie Majors of the Tulsa Police Department
Baltes was last seen leaving a bar with a woman in her 20s, the paper reported. She had been seen a few hours earlier with a different man.
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Cold case Detective Eddie Majors of the Tulsa Police Department worked the case, Fox 23 Tulsa reported.
“It’s a daunting task, but a rewarding task,” he said.
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“We hope and pray that all our questions will finally be answered from the day that changed our lives forever and bring closure to the hearts of our family,” Baltes’ daughter, Becky Baltes, told the station in a statement.
