22-year-old Fresno murder solved
www.fresnobee.com/263/story/50676.html
05/30/07 04:19:17
Quick Job Search
In August 1985, the nude body of a teenage girl was discovered floating in a canal in southwest Fresno. She had suffered many blows to her head with a blunt object.
On Tuesday, nearly 22 years later, Fresno police announced that the case had been solved -- DNA found on the body of 14-year-old Jody Lynn Wolfe matched that of a violent career criminal named Eddie Ricky Nealy.
Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Nealy's arrest is the first homicide solved by his 2-year-old cold-case unit, which takes up cases years after other detectives have given up.
He said he hopes the arrest sends a strong message to other criminals who think they can get away with murder.
"We can't bring back the loss of a loved one," Dyer said, "but we can bring people to justice."
A criminal complaint filed in Fresno County Superior Court charges Nealy, 50, with Jody's murder and rape.
Nealy also faces eight other felonies, including rape, kidnapping and attempted murder in connection with an assault on a 32-year-old woman in September 2001 near Riverdale in southern Fresno County.
Nealy, who has been held in the downtown jail without bail since his April 17 arrest, has pleaded not guilty. His next court hearing is Thursday, when a public defender will be assigned to him. The District Attorney's Office has not decided whether to seek the death penalty.
Efforts to speak with Jody's parents -- Charles and Ramona Wolfe -- were unsuccessful.
But Jody's aunt, Olivia Palacios of Fresno, said the family feels some relief at the news. "We're thankful for the DNA evidence," she said. "At least there's a name to what happened."
Detectives had few clues when Jody's body was discovered in a canal near Fruit and Whites Bridge avenues. Her parents had reported her missing two weeks earlier.
At a news conference Tuesday, Dyer credited police detective Craig Attkisson and state Department of Justice crime specialists for linking Nealy with Jody's slaying. Dyer, on the advice of the District Attorney's Office, declined to say whether Nealy knew Jody. He also did not give details about the events that led to her murder.
At the time of Jody's death, detectives didn't have a suspect, Attkisson said. Once leads were exhausted, Jody's case file found a home with hundreds of other cold cases, Dyer said.
It wasn't until October 2005 when the department, armed with a $1.2 million federal grant, began to aggressively pursue cold cases that have DNA evidence.
Dyer said there are about 250 cold cases involving homicide victims and 300 cases involving sexual assault victims. Police have asked state DNA specialists to analyze nearly 70 of those cases, Dyer said.
So far, five people have been arrested after their DNA matched the evidence in five cold sexual assault cases, Dyer said.
In September 2006, police received word that a cold homicide case had a DNA match to Nealy, whose genetic markers were filed in a law enforcement database system because of his lengthy criminal career. Once the DNA match was established, detectives then had to interview a number of people in Fresno and St. Louis to bolster the case, Dyer said.
Nealy's criminal history stretches back more than a decade. It includes arrests for corporal punishment of a child, robbery and grand theft in the 1980s.
He was linked to the murder and sodomy of Mary Charlotte Barnett, 28, whose nude body was found in a field in on the 2500 block of South Elm Avenue on July 20, 1988, according to court records.
Nealy was charged with the Barnett murder in August 1991 after information and witnesses surfaced when he was already in Soledad prison serving a 16-year sentence for rape and sodomy, court records show.
Barnett was hogtied and had a purse strap and brassiere tightly wrapped around her neck, according to the testimony of a coroner during court proceedings against Nealy. Barnett died as a result of strangulation and had cuts, bruises and fractures on her face, as well as on other parts of her body.
The District Attorney's Office, however, dismissed the murder case in October 1992 because witnesses were unavailable or declined to testify, court records state.
With the case dismissed, Nealy returned to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence. He was released July 3, 2001, but two days later he was in trouble again. Warrants were issued because he failed to report to his parole officer and to register as a sex offender.
Detectives would hear from Nealy about two months later.
According to another arrest warrant, Nealy grabbed a 32-year-old woman as she left a party near Mount Whitney and Garfield avenues near Riverdale during the early hours of Sept. 20, 2001.
Nealy allegedly dragged the woman to a haystack in a nearby field, threatened to kill her and at knifepoint ordered her to strip. Holding the knife to the victim's throat, Nealy then raped the woman, according to the arrest warrant.
The woman was able to fight back and escape, the warrant said. She called authorities and later identified Nealy from a police photo lineup.
But Nealy fled investigators and disappeared.
In April 2004, he was arrested by law enforcement authorities in Los Angeles on drug possession and has been incarcerated since then, Attkisson said.
www.fresnobee.com/263/story/50676.html
05/30/07 04:19:17
Quick Job Search
In August 1985, the nude body of a teenage girl was discovered floating in a canal in southwest Fresno. She had suffered many blows to her head with a blunt object.
On Tuesday, nearly 22 years later, Fresno police announced that the case had been solved -- DNA found on the body of 14-year-old Jody Lynn Wolfe matched that of a violent career criminal named Eddie Ricky Nealy.
Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Nealy's arrest is the first homicide solved by his 2-year-old cold-case unit, which takes up cases years after other detectives have given up.
He said he hopes the arrest sends a strong message to other criminals who think they can get away with murder.
"We can't bring back the loss of a loved one," Dyer said, "but we can bring people to justice."
A criminal complaint filed in Fresno County Superior Court charges Nealy, 50, with Jody's murder and rape.
Nealy also faces eight other felonies, including rape, kidnapping and attempted murder in connection with an assault on a 32-year-old woman in September 2001 near Riverdale in southern Fresno County.
Nealy, who has been held in the downtown jail without bail since his April 17 arrest, has pleaded not guilty. His next court hearing is Thursday, when a public defender will be assigned to him. The District Attorney's Office has not decided whether to seek the death penalty.
Efforts to speak with Jody's parents -- Charles and Ramona Wolfe -- were unsuccessful.
But Jody's aunt, Olivia Palacios of Fresno, said the family feels some relief at the news. "We're thankful for the DNA evidence," she said. "At least there's a name to what happened."
Detectives had few clues when Jody's body was discovered in a canal near Fruit and Whites Bridge avenues. Her parents had reported her missing two weeks earlier.
At a news conference Tuesday, Dyer credited police detective Craig Attkisson and state Department of Justice crime specialists for linking Nealy with Jody's slaying. Dyer, on the advice of the District Attorney's Office, declined to say whether Nealy knew Jody. He also did not give details about the events that led to her murder.
At the time of Jody's death, detectives didn't have a suspect, Attkisson said. Once leads were exhausted, Jody's case file found a home with hundreds of other cold cases, Dyer said.
It wasn't until October 2005 when the department, armed with a $1.2 million federal grant, began to aggressively pursue cold cases that have DNA evidence.
Dyer said there are about 250 cold cases involving homicide victims and 300 cases involving sexual assault victims. Police have asked state DNA specialists to analyze nearly 70 of those cases, Dyer said.
So far, five people have been arrested after their DNA matched the evidence in five cold sexual assault cases, Dyer said.
In September 2006, police received word that a cold homicide case had a DNA match to Nealy, whose genetic markers were filed in a law enforcement database system because of his lengthy criminal career. Once the DNA match was established, detectives then had to interview a number of people in Fresno and St. Louis to bolster the case, Dyer said.
Nealy's criminal history stretches back more than a decade. It includes arrests for corporal punishment of a child, robbery and grand theft in the 1980s.
He was linked to the murder and sodomy of Mary Charlotte Barnett, 28, whose nude body was found in a field in on the 2500 block of South Elm Avenue on July 20, 1988, according to court records.
Nealy was charged with the Barnett murder in August 1991 after information and witnesses surfaced when he was already in Soledad prison serving a 16-year sentence for rape and sodomy, court records show.
Barnett was hogtied and had a purse strap and brassiere tightly wrapped around her neck, according to the testimony of a coroner during court proceedings against Nealy. Barnett died as a result of strangulation and had cuts, bruises and fractures on her face, as well as on other parts of her body.
The District Attorney's Office, however, dismissed the murder case in October 1992 because witnesses were unavailable or declined to testify, court records state.
With the case dismissed, Nealy returned to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence. He was released July 3, 2001, but two days later he was in trouble again. Warrants were issued because he failed to report to his parole officer and to register as a sex offender.
Detectives would hear from Nealy about two months later.
According to another arrest warrant, Nealy grabbed a 32-year-old woman as she left a party near Mount Whitney and Garfield avenues near Riverdale during the early hours of Sept. 20, 2001.
Nealy allegedly dragged the woman to a haystack in a nearby field, threatened to kill her and at knifepoint ordered her to strip. Holding the knife to the victim's throat, Nealy then raped the woman, according to the arrest warrant.
The woman was able to fight back and escape, the warrant said. She called authorities and later identified Nealy from a police photo lineup.
But Nealy fled investigators and disappeared.
In April 2004, he was arrested by law enforcement authorities in Los Angeles on drug possession and has been incarcerated since then, Attkisson said.
