In less than one year, the sole detective in the newly launched Delray Beach Police Department’s Cold Case Unit has solved the 1983 murder of Carla Lowe by utilizing fingerprint technology not available 38 years ago.
On Nov. 13, 1983, the 21-year-old Lowe was found in the middle of the road, brutally beaten and run over. Lowe died from blunt force trauma as she was waiting to board an Amtrak train. Ralph Williams, who has no connection to the victim, has always been a suspect, detectives said, but there was insufficient evidence to move the case forward in 1983.
Due to technological advancements, that is no longer true, and Williams was arrested on Monday and charged with first-degree murder with a weapon after his fingerprints were found on an item left at the 1983 crime scene.
Though he could not elaborate on which item the fingerprint was retrieved from, Cold Case Detective Todd Clancy did say the lab used foster+freeman’s RECOVER latent fingerprint technology.
“Their new technology able to retrieve the fingerprint when we weren’t able to retrieve it in traditional ways,” Clancy said.
foster+freeman, a UK-based company, describe the RECOVER technology as a chemical vapor fuming process to develop fingerprints on a range of difficult surfaces, including those that have been exposed to extreme heat, such as bullet casings, and items that have been washed in an attempt to prevent identification. While we don’t know the difficult surface in this case, we do know that it has been held in police storage for the last 38 years.
The technology was first discovered about 10 years ago at Loughborough University, developed with the backing and support of the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and now refined by foster+freeman.
“I can’t tell you the efforts [Clancy] went through and his skills and knowledge with new technology…going through every piece of evidence to see if there was some other test they could run,” remarked retired detective Mark Woods, who was the original investigator assigned to the Lowe murder.
The Williams arrest is the first for the Cold Case Unit after it was created in January of this year. In fact, the Lowe case, which officially started in February, is the first Clancy has worked.
“Once I was selected for the position, I contacted the retired detectives and asked them what cases they worked back in the day that they felt could be solved through DNA, fingerprints, new technology or even re-interviewing witnesses. Carla Lowe was the main case,” explained Clancy.
Clancy said he does not know which case or cases the Cold Case Unit will work on next, but once the Lowe case is wrapped up, he will review the others and prioritize them on solvability factor.
“This is the exact reason why the cold case position was initiated earlier this year,” said Delray Beach Police Chief Javaro Sims. “To help bring some level of closure to the families who have lost any hope of justice for their losses.”
The Lowe case is still an ongoing investigation.
Photo: Carla Lowe. Credit: Delray Beach Police Department