2024 National Forensic Science Week Murder Mystery Event

After receiving the information request from Detective Greenberg, the state CODIS administrator determined that none of the listed suspects had DNA profiles in the State DNA Index System.   

Detective Borzetti reached out to the Washington State Medical Examiner’s Office that handled the autopsy of Kurt Sinclair and asked if they had retained any biological samples from the deceased that could be used for DNA analysis. The Washington State Medical Examiner’s Office had a blood spot card for Kurt Sinclair on file and Detective Borzetti coordinated with local authorities to develop a DNA profile of the deceased for comparison. Based on DNA analysis, Sinclair was eliminated as a contributor to the crime DNA evidence. 

With regard to Allen Cole, the CODIS administrator advised that the crime laboratory received a convicted offender sample from the state penitentiary in 2003 for this individual, but the sample was rejected due to poor quality fingerprints on the collection card. The laboratory had no other records to indicate that a follow-up sample was ever collected and submitted to the lab. 

Upon receiving this information from the crime lab, Detective Greenberg requested that the state penitentiary collect a new DNA sample from Allen Cole using a standard convicted offender collection kit. This new sample was obtained and submitted to the CODIS lab for testing and upload to CODIS. Within a week of Cole’s lawfully owed DNA profile being uploaded to the Offender Index of CODIS, there was a match reported between Cole’s DNA profile and the unknown suspect DNA profile obtained from the rope and fingernail scrapings collected at Jessica Black’s autopsy. Detective Greenberg obtained a search warrant for a confirmation sample of Cole’s DNA and served it upon Cole in the state penitentiary. At the time of this contact, Detective Greenberg attempted to interview Cole again about the murder case, but he declined to speak to her and requested an attorney. The buccal swabs collected from Allen Cole via the search warrant were tested at the crime lab and a confirmation report was issued by the lab. The male DNA profile from the rope and fingernail scrapings is at least 635 billion times more likely to be observed if it originated from Allen Cole than if it originated from an unrelated, unknown individual.  

As a condition of his plea agreement, Allen Cole provided a detailed statement to Detective Greenberg about the circumstances surrounding the murder of Jessica Black. Cole stated that around the time of the murder, he had been going through a “rough patch” and was heavily involved in methamphetamine and alcohol use.  He often spent time wandering the hiking trails alone during which time he started having dark thoughts about hurting someone. On the day in question, he was out looking for a victim to assault. About 2 miles into his hike, he spotted a female hiker in the distance walking alone in his direction. He concealed himself in the brush near a large rock formation and waited for the hiker to approach. When he saw the lone hiker stop to drink from her water bottle, he quietly approached her from behind and dragged her into the brush by looping the rope around her neck. After a brief struggle, Cole was able to subdue the victim by tightening the rope around her neck. After she stopped moving, he ran back to the site of the ambush to grab the backpack and water bottle she had dropped on the trail to avoid detection. Cole threw the bag and bottle next to the body and as he began to remove the victim’s clothing, he heard voices nearby and got spooked. Cole said he panicked at that point and fled down the main trail path toward the parking lot. Since he had passed a group of hikers as he exited the brush and he was scared that they could identify him, he decided to call and report that he found the body to explain his presence at the scene.