Report: Gaps in DNA Banks Helped Alleged Serial Killer Walter Ellis Leave a Trail of Bodies

Ellis should have given a DNA sample to the state crime databank during a prison stint in the early part of this decade, but he had another inmate pose as him, authorities say.
As a result, when analysts tried to identify DNA in bodily fluids from one of the slayings back in 2003, no matches turned up.
Investigators didn't connect Ellis to the crimes until this fall, when they seized genetic material from his toothbrush. By then, it was too late for the woman police say was Ellis' seventh and final victim.
"If they would have got his DNA when they were supposed to get it, maybe my cousin would still be here," said Sarah Stokes, whose cousin, 28-year-old prostitute Ouithreaun Stokes, was found beaten and strangled in an abandoned rooming house in 2007.









Gen. Ray Odierno, head of multinational forces in Iraq, on progress there and plans for Afghanistan.

