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Topics: US News
Hannah Smith
A man who murdered three women who worked at motels off the I-65 highway has been identified, 35 years after his first attack.
Harry Edward Greenwell, who died in 2013, was named as the notorious 'I-65 Killer' by Indiana state police after being confirmed as a '99.9999% positive' match to DNA samples found at the crime scenes.
Greenwell, who was also sometimes referred to as the 'Days Inn Killer', sexually assaulted and murdered three motel clerks in Kentucky and Indiana between 1987 and 1989.
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"Greenwell had an extensive criminal history and had been in and out of prison several times, even escaping from jail on two separate occasions. He was known to travel frequently in the Midwest," Indiana State Police Sergeant Glen Fifield said during a joint press conference with the FBI confirming the identification.
The first murder linked to the I-65 Killer took place in February 1987, when Vicki Heath was sexually assaulted and shot dead while on shift at a Super 8 Hotel in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Two years later, Margaret 'Peggy' Gill and Jeanne Gilbert were also sexually assaulted and shot dead in Indiana. A fourth victim, who also worked at a motel in Indiana, was able to escape, and became a 'key lead' for police thanks to her description of her attacker.
"She is the only known victim to have survived the vicious, brutal attacks of this killer," Fifield said.
Investigators working on the murder cases were able to link the killings of Gill and Gilbert through ballistic evidence, while Heath and Gilbert's deaths were linked to the fourth victims by DNA evidence.
According to Fifield, DNA analysis combined with hospital records and genealogical research 'generated a significant and important lead'.
"Further investigation and kinship lab testing by the Indiana State Police lab of crime scene samples positive identified the suspect. The match was 99.9999% positive," he said. "It is this scientific breakthrough that ultimately led to the identification of the I-65 killer, Harry Edward Greenwell."
Fifield added the investigations were continuing, as there was a 'distinct possibility' that Greenwell may have committed other unsolved crimes.
Speaking at the news conference, the daughter of Jeanne Gilbert paid tribute to her mother, saying: "We talk about her as if she hasn't gone. My brother and I were fortunate enough to have spent the last seven months of her life living with her and experiencing the joy that she could bring to every day of our life."
Greenwell, who was originally from Kentucky, died in Iowa of cancer aged 68.
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