2014/09/12

WSMV September 11, 2014: Fingerprint could help solve 30-year-old cold case          

A single fingerprint, lifted with a pipe cleaner and super glue, has led investigators to reopen a 30-year-old murder case.

The fingerprint was saved for three decades, and thanks to DNA testing, it could be the key that unlocks this case.

"I can't help believe that somebody does know," Lois Lawrence said.

Lawrence's son, Robbie Lawrence, was a teacher and business owner running for Perry County school superintendent.

Robbie Lawrence was projected to win, but the Thursday before the election, he was shot and killed in his own home with a rifle.

"It ripped the community apart back then, devastated Perry County," Lois Lawrence said.

Thomas Ward served as sheriff then. He, along with many others, believed Robbie Lawrence's political opponent, Anthony Hasting, pulled the trigger.

Ward said Hasting failed a lie detector test at the time.

"The whole community jumped to the wrong conclusion about this, and it really let the true killer get by," Ward said.

Chief Deputy Nick Weems was just a child when it happened. He now works for the sheriff's office and recently got his hand on the case file.

"Reviewed every bit of it," Weems said. "I actually went back to our local paper and I read every newspaper from 1983 to 1985."

Weems found a single fingerprint lifted from the rifle with super glue and a pipe cleaner. more