Oct. 4, 2006 — Three grains of pollen might help solve a 27-year-old murder mystery.
To try to unmask the identity of a teenage girl found slain in a cornfield in western New York in 1979, investigators have turned to a pollen-analysis technique rarely used in the United States in hopes of pinpointing where she once lived.
A forensic botanist in Texas determined that three microscopic pollen grains from an Australian pine that were recovered this summer inside the girl's red jacket and her pants pocket could have come only from Florida, Arizona or most likely southern California, provided she didn't leave the country.
"The chances of one of those pollen grains reaching that area of New York on air currents might be, I don't know, a billion to one," said Professor Vaughn Bryant, director of the Palynology Laboratory at Texas A&M University. "But three of them, unh-unh, I'm sorry, it's not possible."
Based on an assortment of about 40 other pollen types that were also found, the girl seems to have resided in or at least traveled through coastal regions in southern California such as San Diego, Bryant said, adding that "with more effort, it's possible we could narrow this down further."
The girl, believed to be about 15 years old, was shot beside a country road in Caledonia the night of Nov. 8, 1979, then dragged into the field and shot again, police said. The next morning, a farmer spotted her brightly colored jacket and walked over, thinking a hunter was trespassing.
John York, the first police officer on the scene, has since combed through more than 10,000 leads, interviewed two notorious serial killers who claimed responsibility, saturated the South and Southwest with thousands of fliers and got the case profiled repeatedly on "America's Most Wanted."
