A nearly 37-year-old homicide in Florida has been solved and blamed on a now-deceased neighbor, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office announced this week.
Victim Teresa Scalf had her neck fatally cut at her Lakeland residence on Oct. 27, 1986, in what detectives deemed a “sexually motivated attack.” She also incurred defensive wounds to her hands in the incident, according to the sheriff’s office.
Blood not belonging to Scalf was found at the scene of the crime, but that did not lead to the killer as crime-lab databases then had no match for it.
In 2022, investigators sent the blood samples to Othram, a private lab specializing in forensic genealogy. The new search turned up a DNA match from 1949 of a third cousin of neighbor Donald Douglas, according to Tampa Bay NBC affiliate WFLA-TV.
Douglas, 33 at the time of Scalf’s slaying, had been initially canvassed after the killing, because he lived in a house behind the one owned by Scalf. But no specific evidence at the time led detectives to consider him a suspect.
Douglas, who died of natural causes in 2008, had no criminal record and therefore his DNA was not in the database back in 1986. In addition, he was cremated after death, which prevented investigators from taking a sample of his DNA.
After police were told of the 1949 sample match, they went to Douglas’ son and asked for a DNA sample of himself, which he willingly provided.
The lab then connected that DNA profile as having a parent-child relationship to the sample taken from the crime scene — a 100% match, according to the sheriff’s office.
“We are extremely grateful for the assistance from Othram, Inc., who provided us with multiple investigative leads and ultimately the missing genetic evidence,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement.
The sheriff also thanked Douglas’ son, “who was cooperative and willing to assist our detectives. … We were able to help bring long-awaited closure to Teresa Scalf’s devastated family.”
Scalf’s mother, Betty Scalf, said at a news conference, “I’m 84 years old, I lived to see this done. I think that’s why I lived so long.”
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.