On September 20, 1982, Kelly Prosser, then eight years old, left Indianola Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio, and she never went back.
Sadly, she was murdered, sexually assaulted, and strangled before being found two days later in a cornfield in Madison County. This led to a case that confused and disheartened her neighbourhood and the Police for decades.
Kelly Prosser’s case has been surrounded by mystery and sorrow for the past 40 years, but it swiftly vanished behind the thousands of kidnappings and disappearances in the US each year.
As a result of the failure to find more information in the Kelly Prosser case, the inquiry swiftly turned into a cold case.
However, it would take more than 40 years for the mystery surrounding Kelly’s horrible death to be solved.
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Who Is Kelly Prosser? Her Killer
Columbia Police Investigators never abandoned the unsolved crime, and it wasn’t until June 2020 that they could conclusively connect a dead man’s DNA to Kelly’s rape and demise.
The DNA they had matched belonged to Harold Warren Jarrell, who was then suspected of carrying out Kelly’s horrific rape and murder, the Police said at a press conference. Unfortunately, Jarrell would never see justice because he passed away at age 67 in Las Vegas in 1996.
Jarrell didn’t appear to have any connection to the Prosser family and seemed to have abducted Kelly without knowing her. So it was an actual kidnapping of a stranger.
Jarrell has a history of sexual misconduct because he had previously been convicted in a case involving a minor in Columbus in 1977. He had already spent almost five years behind bars for that crime.
This information was finally revealed, and the investigation was judged over. However, even if the family did get some answers, justice was never done, and a little life was still brutally taken from this one. It was a terrible circumstance.
How Did Police Find the Incriminating DNA? Murder Case Update In 2022
According to the Columbus Police, a cutting-edge genealogical testing technique helped identify Kelly Prosser’s killer.
A genealogy company called Advance DNA has just begun working with Police to identify criminals using DNA from crime scenes. They were able to do this by first generating a family tree and then looking for leads with prospective relatives.
In Kelly Prosser’s case, they initially identified a match with a third cousin, but, as they dug more, they determined that Harold Warren Jarrell was the assassin. As a result, Kelly Prosser is one of the most well-known unsolved crimes, and the Golden State Killer in California is another.
Detective Dana Croom, who took over the case in 2016, reportedly shed a few tears when they finally received a match because she couldn’t believe it.
Kelly Prosser Family Statement And Parents Details
Once Kelly’s murderer was found, the Prosser family made a lengthy statement that revealed their complex sentiments regarding the case.
They describe how Kelly’s death served as a twisted holiday and a constant reminder of what they had lost for 38 years. They were relieved to find out who had taken Kelly from them, even though it was disappointing.
The Columbus police department praised the victim’s family for using technology to find the criminal. They asserted that they did not experience a sense of closure or justice, nevertheless, because it had taken so long to find the perpetrator.
However, they had many positive things to say to other survivors, such as how survival is a journey rather than a final goal. Furthermore, they counselled the victims to forgive the perpetrator, recognize how strong they had become as a result of learning to forgive, and finally commit suicide or end their lives rather than keeping anger for the offender and allowing it to pound inside their minds.
The perpetrator of a horrible deed cannot contest the admiration of a survivor. But, if you greet and thank them, they’ll leave your emotions and mind alone.
Kelly Prosser’s mother, Linda Garner, and stepfather Ross Kelly are left behind.
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