The City of Upper Arlington’s (Ohio) Police Chief, Steve Farmer, announced that the Police Division has resolved and closed the homicide case of 8-year-old Asenath Dukat with the help of DNA technology.
Dukat’s body was discovered on June 3, 1980 in a creek bed located on the grounds of First Community Village.
After consulting with numerous police laboratories and other experts in the field in the years following this homicide, the Police Division sent biological material collected during the victim’s autopsy to BCI&I for analysis, in an effort to identify a suspect via improving DNA analysis techniques.
In early 2008, the division received notice that a profile had been recovered, and matched DNA from Brent L. Strutner. Strutner, who killed himself in June 1984 at the age of 24, was a 1979 graduate of Upper Arlington High School and was living near the City of Upper Arlington at the time of the incident.
In an attempt to determine if there was any possibility that another individual had also participated in this crime with Strutner, the division then re-examined every piece of evidence collected in the case and resubmitted items for further analysis, utilizing the most up-to-date forensic methods available. No results were obtained from any other piece of evidence and there is no additional physical evidence that could connect another individual to the crime.
Around the time of Dukat’s murder, other jurisdictions, including Columbus and the Ohio State University, were experiencing a variety of attacks on young females, including an attempt to abduct a young girl only months after Dukat’s murder by one of Strutner’s known associates—Robert “Chris” Winchester. Winchester was found guilty and served prison time for that crime; however, the Police Division was unable to discover sufficient evidence to also link him to the murder of Dukat.
In addition to the forensic examinations that were being performed over the course of this investigation, numerous additional interviews and re-interviews with former officers and other persons of interest were conducted. None of these efforts, however, has resulted in the discovery of any additional evidence related to the case. In light of this, the division is confident that all investigative leads have been exhausted.
“Investigators for the Upper Arlington Police Division have tirelessly pursued justice for the Dukat Family for more than four decades. I am the sixth chief to oversee these efforts and appreciate the hard work that has been put into this case through the years,” said Farmer. “This tragic death shook our community in 1980 and the reverberations continue to this day. Our hearts continue to go out to the Dukat Family, and we wish them peace as they continue their healing.”