Latest DNA tests fail to illuminate Jupiter girl's 1990 murder

By Andrew Marra

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Detectives have hit another dead end in their 16-year investigation of the murder of Jupiter teen Rachel Hurley — DNA evidence recovered from a bracelet on her wrist does not match any of their top suspects.

Palm Beach County sheriff's investigators had been hoping for a break in the 1990 murder case when they did new tests last year on DNA found on a bracelet the 14-year-old girl was wearing when she was raped and strangled in wooded dunes along the beach at Carlin Park.

But test results showed the DNA did not match that of any suspects or anyone else in a national DNA database, another disappointment in one of the most shocking and publicized unsolved murders in Palm Beach County history.

The lead detective in the case says the results do not mean investigators have ruled out their top suspects. They say the DNA may not be that of the killer; it could belong to someone else who had contact with Hurley around the time of her death.

The murder investigation has focused most recently on two childhood acquaintances of Hurley — Douglas J. Gross, 33, and Frank N. Washburn, 31. Both were Jupiter teens at the time of Hurley's death and were known to hang out in the dunes at Carlin Park.

Previous DNA tests appeared to link Gross to the crime scene. Detectives say his blood was on a partially burned shirt found in a trash heap about 200 feet from Hurley's body. Near the shirt were a few articles of Hurley's clothing.

But the DNA on Hurley's bracelet "doesn't match Frank or Doug," sheriff's Detective John Van Houten said. "Who it is, it's hard to say."

Investigators from the sheriff's office and the state attorney's office have been collecting DNA samples from vagrants and others who were known to frequent Carlin Park at the time of Hurley's death, hoping that they stumble upon a match.

"Somebody grabbed her wrist — that's where we're at," Van Houten said. "We're back to trying to find a link to the DNA."

On St. Patrick's Day 1990, Hurley took a shortcut from the beach at Carlin Park in Jupiter to meet her mother. Cutting through the park's wooded dunes, she was raped and strangled just a few hundred feet from beachgoers.

The case horrified the Jupiter community. But as the high-profile investigation focused on one suspect after another, detectives were never able to zero in on a solid lead.

Last year, The Palm Beach Post reported that Gross had emerged as the first new suspect in more than a decade.

DNA tests on old evidence more than two years ago linked him to the discarded shirt found in the trash heap. Detectives say it appeared someone had tried unsuccessfully to burn the shirt.

An investigator interviewed Gross, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for a string of violent crimes. He denied any role in her killing.

But not long afterward, detectives received a letter from one of Gross' fellow inmates. The inmate claimed Gross had confessed to him and had identified one of his childhood friends, Washburn, as an accomplice.

Gross and Washburn continue to deny any involvement in Hurley's murder.

Van Houten hoped that new tests of the DNA from Hurley's bracelet would yield a link to a suspect. Anyone with information about Hurley's death is asked to call Van Houten at (561) 688-4157 or can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at (800) 458-8477.