Cold Case: Will Cutting Edge Forensics Find Student's Killer?

By: Sammy Rose Saltzman
Topics: Daily Blotter

Story contributed by Caroilne Lowe, a crime reporter for CBS affiliate WCCO.

BURNSVILLE, Minn. (WCCO) Kristin O'Connell was a college student when she was brutally murdered during a visit to upstate New York in the summer of 1985. She was studying hotel and restaurant management and hoped to someday work in Hawaii.

O'Connell was barefoot and alone late at night when she left a party at a trailer in Ovid. She wanted to take a walk. She never returned.

Two days later, searchers found her body in a cornfield. Her throat had been slashed.

Furthermore, two people who were seen walking behind Kristin have never been found.

From the start, it's been a tough murder to solve. It rained the night of her murder, which washed away a lot of evidence at the crime scene.

Now, a famed Dutch husband-and-wife forensic team, who have appeared on 48 Hours Mystery and have a track record of solving cases involving touch DNA would be willing to test Kristin's clothes at their lab in Amsterdam.

Richard and Selma Eikelenboom are willing to take the case, there are still some hurdles getting approval from New York State Health Department. The cold case detectives hope health department officials will grant a one–time exemption in this case to allow the testing by the internationally recognized forensic team, even though they are not certified in New York.

Minnesota's U.S. senator Amy Klobuchar, a former prosecutor, is helping on the Kristin O'Connell case. She has personally called N.Y. officials to urge them to give the green light for the DNA testing in Amsterdam.

For more on this story visit CBS affiliate WCCO.

If you have any tips regarding this case please contact New York State Police cold case investigator Jeff Arnold at (585) 398-4123.