39 years ago, Harold E. Bray flew over the mountains of Colorado in the USA on an icy January evening. He looked out the window and saw flashing lights in the mountains.
Three long, three short and three long. He immediately understood what it was: SOS
Bray, who also worked for the police, told his boss and rescue workers were sent up the 3,000-meter-high mountain. There they found the man for 30 years.
He was rescued from the mountain and the story of the incredible rescue operation went around the country, writes Washington Post.
Charged with murder
30 years later, the story of the lucky man has taken a dark turn. He was not just an ordinary person on his way home from a friend in bad weather.
Police now believe that just hours before the large-scale rescue operation, he killed two young women who were hitchhiking nearby.
On January 6, 1982, Annette Schnee (22) and Barbara Jo Oberholtzer (29) were reported missing after hiking in the Breckenridge area.
– What do you mean by security?
The next day, Oberholtzer was found lifeless in the snow, about six meters from the road. She had been shot in the chest, according to police. It would take a full six months before Schnee was found. Police say she was found with a gunshot wound to the back.
Using new DNA technology, the police have used DNA findings from the crime scene and linked them to the now 70-year-old man.
He has now been arrested and charged with the murder of the two women.
– After decades of uncertainty, we hope that this can give us peace and quiet from this terrible nightmare, says Jeff Oberholtzer’s statement said
GUANELLA PASS: It was in these mountains that the man was rescued. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Laura Scudder
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Genealogy research
Police used genetic genealogy to link the man to the killings.
Genetic genealogy is used in forensic examinations to identify DNA remnants by linking the DNA to a family of a missing person or to point to the probable identity of the perpetrator, as in this case.
In this case, the police spent several years linking the family tree to a suspect. But on March 3 this year, they were finally able to arrest the man they believe is behind the double murder.
“It was amazing, it’s something I never thought was going to happen,” homicide investigator Charlie Mcormick told KUSA-TV in Colorado, according to the Washington Post.
Made incredible discoveries on the beach
Did he recognize
When the news of the arrest broke and the suspect’s face was everywhere, a man immediately recognized him.
It was Dave Montoya. He is a former firefighter in Clear Creek, Colorado and helped rescue the suspect on the icy January evening of 1982.
Montoya found the suspect in his car. He had a facial injury and was a little drunk.
– There he was in his little pickup. When he saw me, he said, “Thank God, I’m saved,” Montoya told KUSA.
He says that he thought it was amazing how lucky the man had been.
After that night, Montoya drove home and never saw the murder suspect again – until now. Then he was linked to the murder of the two women.
– He was saved up there, but he did terrible things before that and he has to pay for them, Montoya says.
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