As discussed in the previous post, an interesting murder trial is underway in which a former police detective is accused of killing her ex-boyfriend's wife in 1986. The former detective had started her career as a police officer a few years after graduating from college. 

The defendant eventually was promoted to a job as an art theft detective. She had a husband and a child and was leading a quiet life. Her colleagues and the public were shocked when she was charged with the brutal cold-case homicide, and the strange story has received international attention.

It was originally believed that the 29-year-old had been killed by intruders who meant to rob her home, but that didn't lead anywhere and the case was put away for more than two decades.

The case was buried because at the time of the late 1980s, Los Angeles was experiencing high homicide and violent crime rates, which is where this murder occurred. The crime rate has since gone down and cold-case detectives picked up the files for this case.

In the stored evidence they found a DNA sample taken from a bite wound on the victim at the scene of the crime. They were surprised because an analysis showed the DNA came from a woman.

This made them want to go back through the case and look for possible female suspects as none had come under questioning at the time of the murder, which led them to the current defendant. The defendant's attorney will seek to show that the DNA sample was contaminated or too old to be reliable.

Source: Los Angeles Times, "A broken heart led LAPD officer to kill woman, prosecutor says," Andrew Blankstein and Joel Rubin, Feb. 7, 2012