DNA In Car Leads Investigators To Murder Suspect

Technology gave investigators a new look at old evidence, and a DNA match has a suspected murderer in jail eight years after the crime.

Thirty-eight-year-old James Strahl was a suspect for the last five years and police questioned him several times before charging him with murder this week.

The state's cold case unit performed a test on what's called mitochondrial DNA, which wasn't available until recently.

Usually this type of DNA comes from a strand of hair. That, and murder victim William O'Hare's car, are what brought police to James Strahl.

When investigators found William O'Hare murdered in his home in June 1998, he had been dead for almost three weeks. There was evidence at the scene, but investigators didn't get any breaks in the case until they found O'Hare's car in South Sioux City a week later.

“It was found about two blocks from Mr. Strahl's residence at the time,” says Attorney General Larry Long.

The problem was they didn't suspect Strahl until three years later. But there still wasn't enough evidence to charge him with the murder. During that time Strahl went by at least two different names, but never moved out of the area.

He still lived in Northeast Nebraska when a new DNA test became available to investigators.

“This is an example of new methods of science being applied to old pieces of evidence,” Long says.

They say Strahl and O'Hare knew each other, but won't say how.

A friend of O'Hare's tells KELOLAND News that O'Hare had a boyfriend at the time he was murdered, but was known to bring home other men. The friend says it wouldn't surprise him if Strahl was one of those men.

Strahl is still in jail in Dakota County Nebraska. He’s expected to have a court hearing next week to see if he'll be transferred to Union County to face the murder charges.

Larry Long says the mitochondrial DNA evidence has never been presented or admitted in South Dakota court before. A judge will need to decide whether it can be admitted in this case.