DNA evidence helps identify woman’s killer 36 years after her death

Tracy Whitney was killed in 1988. More than three decades later, DNA analysis has led police to the perpetrator.

Tracy Whitney was last seen leaving a Burger King after an argument with her ex-boyfriend in August 1988. Less than 24 hours later, fishermen found her body in a river near Sumner, Washington, about 12 miles east of Tacoma. She was 18 years old. An autopsy revealed Tracy had been sexually assaulted and died of strangulation, according to a statement from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. Her death was ruled a homicide. Detectives collected DNA samples from her body that presumably belonged to the killer, interviewed people of interest and administered polygraph tests. No suspect was identified, and the case grew cold. Tracy’s sister, Robin Whitney, was 11 years old when the murder took place. Following the loss of her “protector,” Robin vowed to avoid talking about Tracy – not to her friends, her father or eventually to her daughters. “I didn’t want to think about what had happened to her, and what her last moments were like and how scared she must’ve been,” Robin told CNN. “I’d also have to think about everything we missed out on as sisters, how unfair that was.”