A California man strangled an elderly woman to death 28 years ago. Now, he will never see the inside of a prison cell.
It’s been a long wait for the family of Claire “Kay” Holman to get justice for the former hair salon owner and widow. A friend discovered Holman’s body in her Borrego Springs home along the 700 block of Tilting T Drive on March 21, 1994.
An autopsy showed the 72-year-old victim was strangled to death with a cord. At the time, investigators believed the victim knew her attacker due to the lack of a forced entry and the home ransacked. They pursued every possible lead and preserved biological elements at the crime scene for a possible DNA match. Later, the crime lab developed a DNA profile which was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), but it yielded no match in the database, according to the Times of San Diego. Hence, the homicide went cold.
However, in March 2021, the cold case unit of the San Diego County Sheriff’s department considered employing DNA genealogy. The technique involves taking an unidentified suspect’s DNA in comparison with the family members who had voluntarily submitted their DNA directly to authorities upon request or in various depositories or databases. Then, in April, investigators used the DNA extracted from a strand of hair collected at the crime scene and identified 51-year-old Jerry Dewayne Robison as the killer.
The suspect lived in Borrego Springs at the time and often worked as a plumber for Holman, reported The San Diego Union-Tribune. However, authorities could not make an arrest because Robinson died in 2007 after losing a battle with cancer.
Both the Holman and Robinson families were informed of the development of the case. The homicide is the sixth cold case solved with DNA genealogy by the sheriff’s department.
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