After more than three decades, a break in a cold case brings a suspect to the courtroom for a brutal murder dating back to 1988. James Holloman, a 65-year-old Dorchester man, is set to be arraigned on a first-degree murder charge. The indictment comes after new DNA evidence linked him to the murder of 25-year-old Karen Taylor in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, reported NBC Boston.
According to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden, Taylor's three-year-old daughter, responding to a phone call from her grandmother, could not wake her up said that her mother was sleeping in the late afternoon of May 27, 1988. The chilling scene unfolded as the grandmother, finding herself locked out of the building at 37 Williams Street, resorted to entering Taylor's first-floor bedroom through a window only to discover her daughter's body in a dire state, explained in a statement obtained by WCVB.
Evidence at the time included fingernail scrapings from Taylor's right hand, which yielded a full profile of an unknown male. In a significant development last year, detectors obtained a DNA sample from Holloman, establishing a match to the profile located beneath Taylor's fingernails, reported WHDH News. This led to the cold case heating up, culminating in Holloman's arrest and pending arraignment.
Hayden hailed the arrest as "an example of superb investigative work by detectives and prosecutors using modern criminology science," highlighting the arrest as a means for Taylor's family to finally witness somebody being held accountable for her death. "But most of all it's an opportunity for Karen Taylor's loved ones to see someone answer for her death after so many years of unanswered questions," Hayden told NBC Boston.
