An FBI violent gang task force has cracked an Indiana cold-case rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman more than three decades ago.
Tryone McKee’s arrest for the 1988 murder of Colleen Callahan in Gary was announced this week.
“With the advances in technology, especially DNA, increased resources and once reluctant witnesses now willing to come forward to provide information years later, cases that once did not have enough evidence to charge now become cases that can be prosecuted,” said Hobart Police Sgt. Nicholas Wardrip, head of the FBI’s Gang Responsive Investigative Team in Indiana.
The task force began looking at Callahan’s murder again last year.
This undated photo provided by the Lake County (IN) Sheriff’s Department shows Tyrone Andrew McKee. (Lake County Sheriff’s Department via AP)
DNA, GENEALOGY HELP POLICE ID SUSPECT IN 35-YEAR-OLD COLD-CASE MURDER IN WISCONSIN, AUTHORITIES SAY
In 1988, Gary police went to an abandoned home and found Callahan lying on the floor surrounded by broken glass and pieces of a window frame.
She died of injuries from a blunt force instrument, according to reports.
Old newspaper clippings said police suspected a link between the murder and Callahan’s testimony against two men in a 1987 burglary trial, the Chicago Tribune reported. The names of the men were never released.
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Police said Callahan was in the company of the men the night before she was found dead, the paper reported.
At the time of her death, she was the mother of four girls, who ranged in age from 1 to 6 years old.
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The FBI task force has solved five other cold cases in the past year.
