2015/02/04

Duluth News Tribute February 2, 2015: Police credit DNA technology with cracking 1981 cold case

Law enforcement officials are still not sure how the body of 17-year-old Carolyn Lee Andrew ended up in a shallow grave in Duluth’s Twin Ponds in 1981.

They don’t know why the aspiring model was shot once in the right temple. They don’t know where she was in the hours leading up to her death. And they don’t know when her body was dumped in the popular swimming hole eight miles from her Woodland home.

But nearly 34 years later, authorities believe they’ve finally determined the identity of her killer.

Crediting advances in DNA technology, local and state officials said Monday that they’ve tied the homicide to Cecil Wayne Oliver, who died in 1988. The finding was announced at a news conference by Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Duluth Police Department officials. more