BEN LOMOND — Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Workplace investigators imagine they've solved an almost four-decade-old chilly case that left a well-liked San Lorenzo Valley restaurant proprietor useless.
Current developments in forensic know-how allowed detectives to substantiate a hyperlink to a long-held suspected assassin within the case, authorities introduced Wednesday.
The case stems from March 28, 1983, when the physique of Joette Marie Smith was discovered floating within the San Lorenzo River close to Woodland Drive. The favored 33-year-old proprietor and operator of the Buffalo Gals restaurant was decided in a subsequent post-mortem to have died of strangulation. Smith was final seen late the earlier evening at Henflings bar and grill.
In information articles shortly after her loss of life, the Omaha, Nebraska, native was described by associates as “kind-hearted, old style, beneficiant, giving and a good friend to everybody.”
It was not till 1988 that the Sheriff’s Workplace first settled on suspected killer Eric David Drummond, a person with an “in depth historical past of violent crimes” that included sexual assault convictions in California and Nevada, in accordance with an company press launch. In keeping with their investigation, detectives believed Drummond requested Smith for a date whereas at Buffalo Gals, a proposal the enterprise proprietor declined. In keeping with investigators, Drummond left California abruptly after her homicide.
“Whereas there was circumstantial data tying Drummond to the crime, no prison case could possibly be introduced towards Drummond with out additional bodily proof,” Sheriff’s Workplace deputy Lt. Patrick Dimick wrote in a launch.
The case gained new momentum in late August, when investigators had been capable of study a DNA pattern collected from the now 64-year-old Drummond — which matched genetic materials collected on the scene of Smith’s loss of life, the company stated.
As detectives had been closing in and getting ready to hunt an arrest warrant, Drummond took his personal life within the hills of Sierra County, in accordance with Dimick.
“Whereas Drummond won't ever face prison prices or a jury of his friends, the Sheriff’s Workplace is assured that the proof on this case would assist a conviction of Drummond for the homicide of Joette Smith,” Dimick wrote. “The Sheriff’s Workplace extends our condolences to the household and associates of Joette Smith. We want to remind the group of Santa Cruz County that the Sheriff’s Workplace will proceed to analyze every of our homicides.”