Executive Summary
- Columbus police identified Charles William Elliott as the suspect in the 1980 murders of Lynn Vest and Jeremy Pickens.
- Investigators used genetic genealogy on rootless hair samples preserved since the original crime.
- Elliott died in prison in 2000 while serving a sentence for unrelated charges.
- Authorities believe a second suspect may have been involved and the investigation remains active.
Authorities in Columbus, Ohio, have identified Charles William Elliott as the suspect in the 1980 murders of Lynn Vest and Jeremy Pickens, utilizing advanced genetic genealogy to resolve the 45-year-old cold case. According to the Columbus Division of Police, investigators linked Elliott to the crime scene through DNA extracted from rootless hair samples preserved for decades.
Sgt. Terry McConnell and genealogist Amanda Reno announced the findings on Friday, detailing how modern forensic technology bridged the gap where traditional methods had stalled. Elliott, who had a documented history of violent crime including kidnapping and sexual assault in Tennessee, died in prison in 2000 while serving time for unrelated charges. Detectives noted that Elliott had been released into the custody of his sister in Columbus just weeks before the killings occurred on November 12, 1980.
The investigation revealed that Vest, 23, and Pickens, 2, disappeared after leaving their east Columbus home to run errands. Their bodies were discovered the following day inside a blue Mustang Cobra parked near Berkeley Road and East Main Street. A coroner determined that Vest had been strangled and the child suffocated. While early investigations recovered DNA evidence and a single hair, technology available at the time was insufficient to generate a profile for comparison in the national CODIS database.
Investigators emphasized the critical role of evidence preservation in solving this case. Detectives had retained two rootless hairs found at the scene, choosing not to test them in the early 2000s due to the risk of destroying the samples without yielding results. “We had no clue that it would be beneficial for anything but this forward thinking to collect that hair has been preserved all these years,” Sgt. McConnell stated. Breakthroughs in genetic genealogy around 2018 finally allowed experts to extract sufficient data to trace the DNA to Elliott through distant relatives.
Family members of the victims, including Jeremy Pickens’ parents, John Pickens and Cheryl Button, attended the announcement. “The pain is always there. It never goes away,” Button said, expressing a mix of relief and enduring grief. Shane Vest, who was 18 months old when his mother Lynn was killed, was also present alongside his grandfather, retired Columbus police officer Don Hochuli.
Investigative Outlook and Forensic Application
The identification of Charles William Elliott underscores the transformative impact of forensic genealogy on cold case investigations, particularly in instances where offender DNA was not collected during the suspect’s lifetime. While the primary suspect is deceased, law enforcement officials stressed that the case remains open. Sgt. McConnell indicated the possibility of a second participant based on witness accounts and evidence recovered from the vehicle. This development signals a potential shift in focus toward identifying accomplices. It is important to note that all individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
