157. MURDERTIZER - Smells Like Tenacity Wins Again - Carla Jan Walker Update

Earlier this year, in Episode 130, Melissa retold the story of a terrible and terribly unsolved murder out of Fort Worth Texas – the tragic 1974 abduction and killing oif 17 year-old Carla Jan Walker.  Carla and her boyfriend had just attended the Valentine’s dance at Carla’s high school and were doing what young lovers do in the front seat of the boyfriend’s car, in the parking lot of a local bowling alley that was popular with teenagers.  Suddenly, the passenger side door opened and an unidentified man grabbed Carla and pistol-whipped her boyfriend into unconsciousness.  The last words he heard Carla say before he passed out were “go get daddy!”  Just three days later, Carla’s body was found in a culvert close to nearby Lake Benbrook.  She had been violently sexually assaulted and strangled.  For more than 46 years, the case remained unsolved – there were guesses and solid leads, but all of them fell apart.  All that ended this week when a total stranger to Carla’s life – a 77 year-old churchgoer with a spotless record, a family and a secret he was able to keep until he was finally nabbed by DNA technology and an immensely dedicated team of law enforcement professionals who, through several groups of detectives through nearly five decades, never gave up and finally caught their man.