Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot has announced that the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, in collaboration with the Dallas Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, arrested Edward Morgan, 60, for the 1984 capital murder of Mary Jane Thompson.
This arrest comes nearly 38 years to the day that 21-year-old Mary Jane Thompson was found behind a Dallas warehouse. She had been sexually assaulted and murdered on Irving Boulevard on February 13, 1984. Since then, her assailant has remained at large.
In 2009, Dallas Police reopened the case and DNA testing was completed on swabs from the autopsy. An unknown male DNA profile was identified but never matched to a specific suspect. The case went cold again.
In 2018, Dallas Police Cold Case Homicide Detective Noe Camacho reopened the case and worked with the Dallas County DA Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) team on new types of forensic testing techniques. In 2020 the FBI joined the investigation task force. The case was submitted for forensic genetic genealogy analysis (FGG), the same technology used to catch The Golden State Killer. Through FGG, Edward Morgan of Dallas was identified as the suspect.
Last week, DNA testing confirmed he matched the unidentified profile from the swab taken in the 1984 autopsy.
“This case is yet another example of the incredible collaborative effort between the Dallas Police Department, the FBI, and the District Attorney’s SAKI Cold Case team. Working together, we continue to solve the most difficult cold cases that Dallas has ever seen,” said Dallas County Assistant District Attorney and SAKI Chief Leighton D’Antoni. “I look forward to working with all our local law enforcement agencies to utilize the advancements in forensic testing techniques to identify, arrest, and prosecute the most dangerous predators hiding among us. We never, ever forget about these cases, our victims, and their families."
“I especially want to highlight the fantastic work done by the FBI Dallas Violent Crimes Task Force and Dallas Police Department Detective Noe Camacho. They both spent countless hours over multiple years working diligently on what, at times, seemed like an impossible case to solve. It is not every day we are able to solve a 38-year-old cold case capital murder. It takes a singular dedication and authentic commitment to justice to see it through. The people of Dallas are very lucky to have them helping to protect our community,” D’Antoni concluded.
Morgan faces one count of capital murder and is lodged in the Dallas County Jail.
Republished courtesy of Dallas County DA.