DNA Leads To Charge In 1985 KC Homicide

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City man was charged Friday with first-degree murder in the death of a female co-worker more than 20 years ago.

Prosecutors said a recent DNA match led investigators to Sidney W. Slaughter, 45, who they said admitted to stabbing Patricia McMahan, 37, multiple times in the neck and head.

McMahan's body was found June 16, 1985, in a park east of downtown Kansas City.

Slaughter and McMahan worked together at a hotel and were briefly involved.

A police affidavit said Slaughter told detectives this week that he stabbed McMahan after they had sex at the park the night of the killing.

Detectives said they used trace amounts of DNA from the crime scene to create a male genetic profile, which a national database then matched to Slaughter. Slaughter had had never been interviewed about the crime, detectives said.

Jackson County prosecutor Mike Sanders requested that Slaughter be held on $500,000 bond.

"We say it, but it's true: Homicide cases are never closed. When a homicide occurs, there is not statute of limitations. The files are never closed. Detectives and law enforcement continue to work those cases," Sanders said.

Sanders said Slaughter's DNA ended up on file after a 1992 burglary conviction in Kansas.

'It Destroys You'

KMBC's Martin Augustine spoke with Patricia's husband and children about their reaction to the murder charge.

"A person would have to go through something like this before you could ever grasp the feeling what it does to your heart, to your mind, physically, mentally," said Richard McMahan, Patricia's husband of 19 years. "It destroys you. But thank God it didn't destroy me completely."

"I really want justice served. I mean, I was only 5 years old. I didn't get to know her very well," daughter Angie McMahan said.

"When you're 13, that's pretty much when you need your mother the most," daughter Jenny Minchew said.

Richard said it took him and his four children a long time to come to terms with Patricia's death. He said the murder charges have brought a bittersweet ending to two decades of wondering.

"He had a lot of years to be free, where she didn't. You know, that's probably the worst part of it. He's run free all these years, and she's been gone so many," Minchew said. "I just want to know why. Why her? You know, so many senseless things happen in a day, and I just want to know why."

"I really hope he pays. I hope he knows what he's done to us. It's tore us all up. It really has," Angie McMahan said.