DNA evidence links suspect to two killings

ABERDEEN — Investigators say DNA evidence has led them to a possible suspect in the deaths of two women whose bodies were found along the same logging road nearly six years apart.

But the Grays Harbor County prosecutor is unsure whether the new evidence alone is enough to bring charges in the deaths of Elaine McCollum and Carol Leighton, The Daily World of Aberdeen reported yesterday.

McCollum was killed nearly 12 years ago, her body found on a Weyerhaeuser logging road southeast of Cosmopolis. Leighton's body was discovered six years ago about a mile farther down the same gravel road.

Both had last been seen in downtown Aberdeen.

Besides the proximity of the bodies, there was something else that connected the killings, investigators say: the degree of cruelty and rage displayed by the killer.

"Obviously, homicide involves violence, but these were outside the norm," sheriff's Detective Lane Youmans told the Daily World.

McCollum, 33, had been driven over several times and dragged by a car Feb. 6, 1991.

The body of Leighton, 41, of Westport, was found on Aug. 4, 1996. She had been stabbed.

At each crime scene, investigators gathered clothing, tissue and other objects containing DNA. Some of those items would remain inside a refrigerated evidence locker for years.

Youmans and other detectives spent thousands of hours on the cases, taking a hard look at 50 potential suspects. Nothing panned out.

Then, three years ago, in a milking barn near Oakville where he was investigating a beating, Youmans had what he describes as an "epiphany."

Inside that barn, he recognized a level of violence he'd seen in the McCollum and Leighton killings.

Frankie Cochran, a 32-year-old mother of three, had been bludgeoned with a hammer while she was working. Then she was strangled, stabbed and left for dead.

But Cochran survived, recovered and identified her attacker. David Gerard was arrested and later convicted of first-degree assault and sentenced to 37 years in prison.

With Gerard's conviction in 1999, he had to submit a blood sample for entry into the state felon DNA databank.

Youmans decided to re-examine the physical evidence in the Leighton and McCollum killings.

The first positive match came in the summer of 2000: Gerard's DNA was identical to seminal fluid found on Leighton's body. Last September, the sheriff's office learned that DNA found on McCollum's body also matched Gerard's.

Investigators forwarded their findings to the prosecutor's office in November. But Grays Harbor County Prosecutor Stew Menefee said there is not enough evidence to support a criminal charge.

"There's DNA evidence from several people," he said. "At this point, we can't exclude anybody."

But only Gerard's DNA was found on both victims, he said. That's why the Sheriff's Office is still looking for people who may have seen Leighton and McCollum before they were killed.

"It's still a live case," Menefee said.