An Unsolved Chicago Murder

I opened the letter with more than mild curiosity. Why would I get a letter from the Chicago Police?
Well they have an unsolved murder. What does that have to do with me, the coroner of a sparsely populated Southeast Ohio County that has less than a quarter murder a year?
I was about to find out.
Two detectives from the Chicago Police cold case unit were heading this way for a sit down with myself and the prosecutor.
They sent an advance packet outlining the purpose of the meeting. It read like a dime store gum shoe murder mystery. Except this was a real person, and a real family that really lost a loved one in a horrific murder.
Ten years prior a beautiful young college student and part time waitress had been brutally murdered late night on her doorstep. She was 19.
She was the victim of a brutal attack from behind as she was about to enter her home. It was an OJ Simpson like attack, a blade of some sort had nearly severed her head from her body. There were almost no leads, no apparent motive besides possibly a sexual assault gone wrong. No real evidence except some trace spots of blood that did not match the victims blood type. Not enough for DNA analysis.
An exhaustive investigation revealed no suspects. Save for one.
Some of her coworkers had seen a Navy man the past several nights hanging around the bar in the restaurant. He was quiet, said little and spoke to no one.
But he did seem to be observing this waitress and she had mentioned to a coworker that he made her a little uneasy.
They got a description of him and set about trying to identify or find him.
Great lakes Naval Station is near there and hundreds if not thousands of sailors do naval reserve drills for 2 weeks in the summer making this a daunting task.
They got lucky however.
They started with the Naval authorities criminal investigations hot sheet and found the usual numbers of sailors had been arrested and disciplined the weekend of the murder, but one stood out.
A male reservist fitting the description of the man at the restaurant had gone AWOL. Not an uncommon occurrence for a service member to go absent without leave. but this man had gone AWOL the night of the murder. He was a reservist, on drill for 2 weeks. Interestingly, there was only 2 days left of 2 weeks active duty time.
His military record was above average without problems. He had no prior offenses.
Soon a picture was produced and it was confirmed by workers at the restaurant that he was the man who had been frequenting the restaurant bar.
He had appeared to have come in late to his quarters, packed hastily, as he had left some of his uniforms, and and had not been back.
So they called his home. His elderly parents whom he lived with answered and told an alarming tale.
Their son had arrived home early from drill. He gave no explanation. He did not speak to them. He seemed quite distraught.
He went to his room and he never came out alive.
Some time during the night he had hung himself in his room.
No note. No reasons. No history of mental illness. No apparent logic could be made from it.
I pulled the coroners report from my county but it shed no further light.
I called my retired predecessor who had been coroner over 25 years. He remembered the case. His wife had taught the boy in high school. He was a quiet, reserved boy from a conservative farming family. He was the last of several children and was 10 years younger than his nearest sibling
It was a mystery. My colleague was unaware of the Chicago PD investigation. Dead end on both counts.
Now fast forward 10 years. Science marches on. techniques have been developed to magnify a DNA sample and get a genetic profile from samples that previously were insufficient.
Here lies the crux of the story.
The Chicago police needed a source of DNA to rule out or rule in this young man as a murderer.
He was long buried, the navy did not keep DNA samples like they do now and I am not sure that those samples, which are meant to help identify a service members remains and not for legal purposes, are even discoverable in a court of law.
The detectives asked the parents for DNA but they absolutely refused. They apparently were not willing to take the chance of ruling their son in as a murderer.
They made it absolutely clear that they opposed exhumation of the body. They were even told that if they did not give DNA that exhumation could be sought through legal channels.
They gambled that the evidence was too circumstantial for the Chicago PD to convince a court to order exhumation. They knew that they could not be compelled to provide DNA under these circumstances, having obtained legal counsel. The case was too circumstantial to compel those not a direct party to the case to provide a DNA sample.
So the investigators came to me. They knew that the coroner has absolute power to order exhumation and that this process does not need family consent.
So it was up to me.
I did not contact the parents. their wishes had been made very clear.
I carefully examined the evidence. Compelling but circumstantial none the less.
But the family of that murdered girl deserved closure. How would I feel in those shoes?
I was torn. It came down to one aspect for me. It was really a toss up in my mind. Hey I actually WANTED TO KNOW how this case ended.
But who was I elected to represent?
Then I thought of the cost. Over $1500. Over 5% of my annual budget. I called the Chicago investigators. Were they prepared to foot the bill?
My entire budget for the year covered my pittance of a salary and about 4-5 autopsies a year. If I exceeded that I would have to request more and the county would be obliged to pay, but still it was an expense for this rural, chronically broke county.
No the detectives replied, they could not pay for the exhumation.
So after much thought, I denied the request for exhumation.
His secrets died with him and it appeared that is where they would stay.
What would you have done in my shoes?