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Investigators have used DNA evidence to link a Montana man already serving a life sentence to the rape and murder of a Scotch Plains woman at an Arkansas rest stop nearly five years ago, authorities said yesterday.
DNA detected on the body of Kristin Laurite, who was found stabbed to death in August 2000 along Interstate 40, was matched to DNA from the prisoner, Ronald James Ward, 38, said Sheriff Mark Flowers, of Conway County, Ark.
Laurite, who would have turned 30 this year, was alone and making a cross-country move from New Jersey to California when she pulled off the highway northwest of Little Rock to walk her two dogs.
Authorities also have linked him to at least two other homicides in California that same year, one involving a homeless woman, the other a disabled woman.
Ward was not a suspect before the DNA match and has not been charged with Laurite's death, Flowers said. The sheriff said there's no rush to complete the investigation.
"It ain't like he's walking the streets," he said. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1122095496138540.xml&coll=1&thispage=2
DNA detected on the body of Kristin Laurite, who was found stabbed to death in August 2000 along Interstate 40, was matched to DNA from the prisoner, Ronald James Ward, 38, said Sheriff Mark Flowers, of Conway County, Ark.
Laurite, who would have turned 30 this year, was alone and making a cross-country move from New Jersey to California when she pulled off the highway northwest of Little Rock to walk her two dogs.
Authorities also have linked him to at least two other homicides in California that same year, one involving a homeless woman, the other a disabled woman.
Ward was not a suspect before the DNA match and has not been charged with Laurite's death, Flowers said. The sheriff said there's no rush to complete the investigation.
"It ain't like he's walking the streets," he said. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1122095496138540.xml&coll=1&thispage=2