DNA On Cigarette Butt Solves 35-Year-Old Murder | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: Pensacola, Florida, New Year's Day 1985, the body of a young woman found lying on the side of a busy street
partially naked. She has been sex assaulted. He strangled her and then dumped her
on the side of the road like a piece of trash. NANCY GRACE: Investigators struggle to find the killer.
As the time passes, then the chances of solving that case becomes percentage-wise less and less, and after three days,
then it seems like the percentage goes down very dramatically. And then it becomes a cold case.
NANCY GRACE: Decades later, the case is reopened, and a brand new team of detectives takes over.
There's always something that's left behind anytime that there's a homicide. It's just a matter of finding it.
NANCY GRACE: This is the story of how a cold-blooded killer faces a powerful opponent, an opponent that does not exist
when he commits his crime. I'm Nancy Grace, and this is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
Pensacola, Florida, 1985, a small picturesque coastal city situated on the Gulf of Mexico.
TONY ADAME: Back in the '80s, it was a place that was like everywhere else in America, struggling, you know,
economically to find its place and looking for what was going to be the next thing to kind of
bring it into the 21st century. [MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: Peace in this normally sleepy part of town
is shattered New Year's Day 1985. MIKE MANEY: A lady that lived on Peacock Drive, she and two
friends at 2:00 in the morning were taking their dog to an overnight vet. When she was returning home at 5:15 in the morning,
that was when they noticed a body alongside the road. That was pre-cell phone days, so they
had to go back to the house to make the phone call. NANCY GRACE: Police respond to the 911 call
and rush to the scene. MIKE MANEY: I arrived at the crime scene somewhere around 6:00 AM and contacted
our crime scene supervisor Bob Grant who was on scene already. ROBERT T. GRANT: There were some homes there.
This was like a small subdivision, but there were some lots, like a wooded lot that had not had
a home built on it at the time. And we observed a body of a white female lying on the side of the road.
We saw a towel by her body. She was in what I would call, like, evening clothes or party clothes so to speak.
Her clothes were in disarray and pulled up, and there was some blood. There appeared to be blood around her head, not
a great deal, but there were some scrape marks and abrasions and that type of thing.
RICH ROBINSON: There was a 5-centimeter wide laceration on her forehead. There was some blood in her hair but not
a lot of blood on her body, and it's clear that there had been a very violent struggle.
MIKE MANEY: We assumed right off the bat that it was a sexual battery, and that was based on the condition of her clothing and the fact
that the crime occurred somewhere else. Being so close to the road, that wouldn't have been
where the assault took place. It was at a corner lot at the corner of two streets,
and if she had been assaulted there, it would have been away from the highway. The only evidence that was obvious to me
besides the victim was the clothing that she had on and the blue towel that we found next to her head.
NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: There's a principle in crime scene investigation called Locard principle,
and Locard's principle is that there is always something left at the scene and taken from a scene that will
lead you back to your suspect. NANCY GRACE: One early clue was the discovery of the victim shoes two miles from where her body is found.
MIKE MANEY: They were both on Spanish trail, and they were separated by about 400 feet.
So we surmised from that that whoever dumped the body had traveled that way either coming or going to the crime scene
and was throwing items out of the car. NANCY GRACE: The priority for investigators
is to identify the victim. MIKE MANEY: Bob Grant, the crime scene supervisor, took fingerprints from the body, and it was the sheriff's
department that identified the prints as belonging to Tonya Etheridge McKinley. TONY ADAME: Tonya Etheridge McKinley was born on January
25, 1961, in Milton, Florida. She was a lot of fun, you know, loved to go to parties,
loved to make friends. Got married at a pretty young age and divorced at a pretty young age
and then eventually she moved to Pensacola and met a guy named Tim Davidson and they had a son, Tim
Davidson, Jr. A lot of the things she was doing in her life around the time she got
murdered was to make a better life for herself and her son. She dropped out of high school but she
was going back to get a technical degree from a place in Pensacola. NANCY GRACE: Investigators now focus
on Tonya McKinley's recent partner named Tim Davidson. He's the father of her toddler boy,
a child now left without a mother. MIKE MANEY: He was very cooperative. He gave us enough information for us
to know where she was the night before and who she was with. He told us what his activities were the night before
and names of people with it that could verify that. We did ask him if he would take a polygraph, which
he agreed to, and that was scheduled for about two days later. NANCY GRACE: A young mother trying desperately
to build a better life for herself and her little boy, that life cut short. But can her partner shed light on her murder,
a murder that takes place that fateful New Year's Eve 1985. I'm Nancy Grace, and that's next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[MUSIC PLAYING] Pensacola, Florida, New Year's Day, 1985, the semi-nude body of a beautiful young woman, Tonya McKinley,
found dumped on the side of a city street. Within 24 hours, police questioned her former partner
Tim Davidson. MIKE MANEY: The victim's last known movements are extremely important.
We didn't have the luxury of having that until the following morning when Tim Davidson
came down to speak to us. He was the first one that told us that what her activities had
been the previous night, and he had gotten that information from her cousin. [MUSIC PLAYING]
TONY ADAME: Tonya Etheridge McKinley was hanging out with her cousin Vinita and her husband Larry
and they were going out for the night and they just got child care until, you know, 1:00 or 2:00
in the morning. NANCY GRACE: It becomes very clear that Tim Davidson played no part in Tonya's death.
It's also clear that Tonya McKinley spends New Year's Eve at a highly popular local restaurant,
Darryl's Bar and Grill. Darryl's was a bar and grill that was located in the north end of town.
And her cousin left to go pick up Tonya's son from the babysitter and that left Tanya there at the bar.
Her cousin Vinita assumed that she would get a ride home with friends. MIKE MANEY: After about 1:30, nobody
knows anything about Tanya. They don't know when she left. They don't know if she left alone.
We had very little information to go on at all. NANCY GRACE: Pensacola police visit Darryl's Bar And Grill.
The bartender Kurt Liske actually knows Tanya McKinley personally. He also becomes a person of interest.
They dated a couple of times. So they knew each other, and he had spent a little bit of time
with her talking. So we asked him to come down to the police station to give us a further in-depth interview,
which he did, and during that interview, he remained nervous. The investigators asked him if he would
be willing to take a polygraph. He agreed to it. He was given a polygraph right away.
The polygraph examiner reviewed the results, and it was his determination at the time
that Kurt passed the polygraph, that his version of what he did that night was accurate.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: Police rule out two men who dated Tanya McKinley as suspects.
Detectives now hope her autopsy will provide solid leads. NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: Initial pathology report
showed that she had that laceration to the back of her head and that she had been strangled.
And it also showed that there was a faint line that was 2 centimeters in width that went
across the front of her neck. RICH ROBINSON: There was a brown hair that was determined
to come from a Caucasian, and there was also a brown pubic hair that was determined
to come from a Caucasian. And investigators knew that these were not Tonya's hairs
and assuming came from the perpetrator of this crime. NANCY GRACE: Investigators now beg for help outside Pensacola.
They approached the FBI's emerging behavioral science unit in Quantico, Virginia.
MIKE MANEY: According to the information they had, they felt like Tanya was a risk taker.
She would be somebody that would hitchhike, accept a ride from a stranger. They felt that the crime itself was a one on one,
a stranger on stranger crime. TONY ADAME: They called m it an opportunity killer, someone who
saw an opening and took it, someone that had it, you know, in them to do something like that
but took advantage of the opportunity of, hey, here's a vulnerable person. MIKE MANEY: The psychological profile on the suspect
was based on the fact that there was no indication that any type of a weapon was used.
It was more the injuries she sustained were more from a struggle. They did say that they felt like it could have been the fact
that he made sexual advances towards her which she refused, and when he pursued it based on the fact
that she was a fighter that physical confrontation resulted. And then from that, she was strangled.
NANCY GRACE: Her brutal rape and murder of Tonya McKinley is all over local news.
Fear spreads throughout Pensacola. TONY ADAME: It was front page news for that week,
and it was one of the things, you know, it bothered a lot of people that reported to the crime scene.
The law enforcement that showed up, I've talked to them. It's something you don't shake.
And people would like to think that you're safe in your community. If you're gonna go out and be a reveler on New Year's Eve,
they like to think that they're safe. So I imagine for some people, it was a reality check.
Are they doing things in their own life that could lead to something tragic happening?
NANCY GRACE: Investigators use all the tools available in 1985, but Tonya McKinley's murder goes cold.
MIKE MANEY: The investigation itself was a year long investigation. We had no witnesses that saw her leave,
so we didn't know if she left alone, if she left with somebody. Any persons of interest that we had in those first couple
of days, they all passed polygraphs their alibis all panned out. There's not a moment when a case officially
becomes cold necessarily. It just happens because over time new leads stop coming in.
There is no new evidence. There's no one else to talk to, and they hit a wall. In this case, that pretty much happened,
and they just weren't finding what they needed to bring forth a criminal prosecution.
They did not have the evidence to do so. NANCY GRACE: Tonya McKinley's murder investigation goes cold,
but detectives have one valuable piece of evidence, semen left behind at the crime scene.
Can they find a way to link it to her killer? That's next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[MUSIC PLAYING] New Year's Day, 1985, Pensacola, Florida, the semi-nude body of 23-year-old Tonya McKinley
found dumped on a city street. After a full year of dead ends, the case goes cold,
but 15 years later, a brand new team of investigators takes over. NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: There was semen on the vaginal swab,
and there was semen on the blue towel in addition to having the blood of Tonya McKinley on that towel.
So having that amount of biological material was a plus for solving this case. MIKE MANEY: You always think about the cases
that you've never cleared, and we'd put so much time and effort into this one. You know, we had interviewed in excess of 70 people.
We had conducted three search warrants. We had conducted six polygraphs, submitted
samples for DNA testing. So, I mean, we had a lot invested in the case, and you don't forget that.
DANIEL HARNETT: When I first became a detective, there were senior detectives and senior officers
in the department who had worked on the initial case. And so there was always an interest in
whether or not somebody could pick up the case and do something with it. And periodically we would.
It was an unsolved case which meant it was a priority if someone could figure out something
to do with it that hadn't already been done or to see if a new technology had arisen that would allow us
to do something with the case. And in my career, two things have occurred. It was the advent of DNA being more prevalent in case work,
and so there was a need to resubmit it for DNA evidence. And that came back with no matches,
and so it kind of languished there until something new happened and that's what led to this particular case being reopened in 2018.
NANCY GRACE: In 2018, a very powerful new forensic science becomes available to investigators.
It's called genetic genealogy. It links a DNA code found in evidence like semen to a wider group of people than just the perpetrator.
Genetic genealogy may show a match to the killer's family member. NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: I was approached by a detective who
was working a missing persons case, and he had heard about genetic genealogy and wanted to try it with his case.
So I set up a meeting with Parabon and had that detective plus several other detectives
in the investigation unit, and we received a presentation by Parabon. And we soon found out that unfortunately
that missing person case did not qualify for genetic genealogy. But then I thought immediately that the Tonya
McKinley case did qualify. So I approached the captain at the time, Kristen Brown,
and took it to her, and she took it to the chief at the time. And he approved going forward with pursuing
genetic genealogy. And so we got that ball rolling. NANCY GRACE: Detectives understand very well submitting
the DNA sample to the genetic genealogy specialists at Parabon NanoLabs comes with its own set of complications.
NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: We had to send our DNA sample to a lab in Oklahoma to be reworked.
The way a DNA sample goes into the CODIS system is different than the way a DNA sample
goes into these genetic genealogy websites. So the DNA had to be reworked, so that was the first step.
And we took that step in January of 2019. [MUSIC PLAYING] CECE MOORE: From the crime scene,
they were able to find foreign DNA, and that DNA was from a male that they believed
was responsible for her murder. So that's the DNA that was submitted to Parabon for us
to develop a snap profile and then perform investigative genetic genealogy on. What's so incredible about this technology--
and this is where it really gets into science fiction-- investigators and researchers are
able to cross-reference DNA with public accessible databases of DNA. So these are the type of things that you and I do
when we try to find out what country are our relatives are from. All that is put in a big pool, and so they
can look at that information and try to find out victims and perpetrators of crimes.
And in this case, that's exactly what they did. CECE MOORE: From the DNA, we knew that he was male,
and so I was looking for a male of the right age. Didn't know if he was young or old but of an age
where he wasn't too young or too old to be able to perpetrate this crime, and I knew it was somebody that
had to be in the area where she was found around the time that she was discovered.
Working with the DNA of the unknown suspect as I do on all my cases, I create genetic networks.
I compare those top matches to some of the more distant matches and try to find clusters of matches that are
sharing DNA with each other. Then I build their trees, and I try to identify their common ancestors.
If I'm successful in doing that, then I can piece his family tree back together piece by piece by piece.
It's like a puzzle. I have to find that one person or that set of siblings that is related to all of those top or key
matches. And so in this case, even though I didn't have a lot of strong matches, I was
able to develop four separate genetic networks, so those four genetic networks represent
one branch of his family tree. When you have four separate genetic networks, that usually
ensures that you're going to have some DNA matches connecting to the mother's side of the tree
and some to the father's side. And so if we have matches that share X DNA in addition
to the autosomal DNA, we know those matches are going to connect to that male's mother's side.
And so in this case, I had a couple of matches that had significant amounts of shared X DNA.
Those matches connected with some of my other matches, and so I knew that those genetic networks that included
the matches with X DNA had to represent our unknown killer's mother's side of the tree.
So in this case, I was able to find that union between two of the genetic networks.
So that is very exciting. When those pieces start falling in place, it's a very exciting moment in my job
because I know I'm heading in the right direction. NANCY GRACE: The key to forensic genetic genealogy
is building an entire family tree from a single DNA source. Scientists who do this rarely come up
with an immediate suspect. Instead, their work creates a big family tree made up of many, many generations.
Investigators painstakingly narrow that family tree down until it points directly to the person
linked to the DNA sample. [MUSIC PLAYING] TONY ADAME: Chuck Mallett had big white boards put in,
and he became somebody, like, that essentially worked like the people from Parabon.
And these white boards became filled with hundreds and hundreds of names, and there were names on the board dating back to,
you know, the late 1700s in Pensacola trying to put together family trees. NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: And so we got
a lot of investigative leads. We got targets, people that we needed to either get their DNA
or have them upload their profile into GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA. Captain Mallett would identify those targets,
and then he would contact them and try to get them either to do an Ancestry DNA kit or if they
had a kit to upload their profile into these databases. So it was a very arduous process to get these targets.
And we would have a meeting and we'd identify the targets and then they would-- we would get the results.
And then we would kind of narrow it down, and we just kept narrowing it down and narrowing it down
and FDLE did an amazing job with that. They did a lot of the genetic genealogy research,
and then finally they narrowed it down to Daniel Wells. [MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: Daniel Wells is now the prime suspect
in Tonya McKinley's murder. Detectives now must link him to the crime scene. DANIEL HARNETT: Captain Mallett began pulling the assets
and the team together. Our intel people, our crime, scene folks and then myself with the specific purpose and intent of that we would
have to obtain a DNA sample from them and then eventually would lead to a conversation
or an interrogation. So my use was in helping to recover evidence from a target and then the eventual interrogation
of that subject. And when we learned the name, we learned where he lived, where he worked, and then did historical check
for his history. And we found that he had some sexual deviant related charges and history in the past.
Prostitution, exposure of sexual organs, so those sort of crimes seem to sort of fit with the type of person who would do
a sexually motivated homicide. So that was a flag that, hey, this could actually
be a potential suspect in this case beyond simply having genetic markers or family members that
were associated with the unknown suspect DNA, so he became of interest at that point.
NANCY GRACE: Cold case investigators finally name a prime suspect, Daniel Wells.
Next on "Bloodline Detectives," they've gotta track him down. [MUSIC PLAYING] February 2020, Pensacola, Florida,
35 years after the brutal rape and savage murder of 23-year-old Tonya McKinley, thanks to genetic genealogy,
investigators finally have the name of a suspect, Daniel Wells but now police have to find him.
NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: Genetic genealogy is most definitely a game changer for law enforcement.
It has opened up not just to offenders who are subject to putting their DNA into CODIS,
but it is all their family members who may not even realize that they are related to people who are out there
committing murders or rapes. NANCY GRACE: One priority for detectives is to establish Daniel Wells' whereabouts
on New Year's Day 1985, the day Tonya McKinley is murdered. CAROLYN CONNORS: The homicide was in 1985,
and I needed to go back as far as I could to try to figure out where he's been since then.
I wanted to see was he even in the area at that time. I came across a traffic ticket from South
Florida that had an address in Pensacola from March 30th of 1985. TONY ADAME: He was a son of a pharmacist
there in town so came from a family that had a little bit of money. You know, he had--
he was the only son. He had a lot of sisters. He seemed like he had a pretty-- I mean, other than his parents splitting up,
it seemed like he had a pretty normal background. CAROLYN CONNORS: Going back to the traffic citation in 1985,
it listed on there that he was a carpenter. I saw that he had moved to Missouri,
and when I was doing research, I saw that in Missouri, he was also doing some type of woodwork.
He got married in 1993, and then he was remarried again in 2003. And then he was back here in Pensacola around 2009.
He had a son in that time frame. It appeared that he laid kind of low. I remember doing some research on social media
at his place of employment and realized he was in none of their photos. They had Christmas parties, different gatherings.
They would show people doing woodwork, and he was in none of the photos. And it just seemed like he kept to himself.
NANCY GRACE: Daniel Wells's criminal past, including sex crimes, is critical information
for investigators. They still need to link him directly to Tonya McKinley's murder.
Detectives decide to conduct surveillance on Wells. KYLAN OSLEY: I was advised of the circumstances
of the genealogy and the work that Sergeant Harnett and Captain Mallett had done on this case,
and they needed assistance with surveillance of a possible suspect. KELLY EIERHART: We went over who Daniel Wells was, where he
worked, where he lived, and then, you know, we kind of worked together and made up
a sheet of different dates and times that surveillance was needed. I don't remember how many days, but it was several days
and just watching his movements kind of did he leave for work at the same time, did he return home,
did he go to lunch regularly, you know, just try to put together a pattern. KYLAN OSLEY: We went to several places, several locations
where Mr. Wells went to as well. A lot of places that he went, we were also present.
I was able to get fairly close to him. I spoke to him actually during a lunch break.
We were in the same restaurant. It was a random conversation about the food at the restaurant and just about our day, just very brief.
DANIEL HARNETT: Over the course of a couple of days, we noticed that he was a smoker.
So the idea was that we would have to try and obtain a sample of his DNA through surreptitious means.
Because he was a smoker, the hope was that he would discard a cigarette. So we began following him with the intention
of seeing if he would. So the police follow him, and this is where it becomes basically a scene right out of a film.
The police trail him in his car. Myself and two special agents with the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement were following Mr. Wells when one of the special agents noticed that he was
smoking saw him throw the discarded cigarette butt out the window. And so because we were in a few vehicles behind him,
we made it stopped, blocked traffic. Myself and that special agent went out, found the cigarette
butt, recovered it, turned it in, and then brought it straight to the crime lab.
The following day, they were able to tell us that there was a match and that it matched Daniel Wells.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: It was very exciting. We-- there were a lot of high fives and cheers,
and it was a very exciting moment. The day we found out was kind of a very somber day
for the police department. We had just lost a officer, and so that was kind of a high note
that we ended that day on, that yes. Finally, after 35 years, we know who killed Tonya McKinley.
NANCY GRACE: After 35 long years and thousands of man hours, investigators finally have the DNA
match linking Daniel Wells directly to Tonya McKinley's murder. Now detectives move in for an arrest.
That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] Pensacola, Florida, March 2020, 35 years
after 23-year-old Tonya McKinley was raped and murdered, detectives are finally ready to confront
and arrest the prime suspect, now 57-year-old Daniel Wells. DANIEL HARNETT: We didn't know what his mindset was
or if he was expecting this to eventually happen, but we knew that he was a bad driver.
And so we knew that we could pull him over at some point because of the fact that he had a propensity for speeding.
So we decided that that would probably be the safest route to conduct a traffic stop.
KELLY EIERHART: In this particular case, what they decided to do was a traffic stop, which is where myself and Detective Osley came into play.
KYLAN OSLEY: Detective Eierhart and I got into a marked vehicle, and we-- when Mr. Wells got mobile in his vehicle,
we conducted a traffic stop on him. KELLY EIERHART: It was March 17th, and the very next day is when Pensacola
kind of shut down for COVID. So a lot was going on, and people were very concerned.
So I asked him due to kind of everything that was going on, would he mind stepping outside of the car to speak with me so
that we could have that open air environment, and he complied with no question. [BLEEP]
DANIEL HARNETT: He was taken into custody, brought to the police station by those two detectives,
and then eventually we sat down in a room with them here at the police department and had that conversation.
NANCY GRACE: After an hour of denying he was present at Tonya McKinley's murder,
Daniel Wells runs out of lies. NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: It was a awesome moment when, you know,
he's confronted with can say you weren't there but we have undeniable evidence that you were there.
He finally admitted that first it was just small admissions that, oh, you know, I just had consensual sex with her.
But, you know, he was being presented with we know you just didn't have consensual sex.
DANIEL HARNETT: And so we offered two different scenarios. The two scenarios were either you're a monster who's
going out hunting women and we utilize his criminal history to kind of purport that, and we're able to kind of link that
to a behavior sort of like Ted Bundy, someone who would lure women to him to prey upon them.
And that paints a picture of him being a complete monster, so he's not gonna like that.
And the other option was that you had an encounter with her, things got out of hand, and eventually led to you
having to kill her or something took place to where that was what you did. And so with those two choices, he chose the lesser evil
of the two choices in that, and then he shared with us what actually happened. [MUSIC PLAYING]
NANCY GRACE: Captain Chuck Mallett can now tell Tonya's son, Tim Davidson, Jr., his mother's case is finally solved.
NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: I heard that phone call on a recording, and it was extremely emotional.
It was, you know, here Tim, who didn't even learn that his mother had been murdered until he was
14 years old, and to know that, you know, we finally caught his killer, it was very emotional for both Captain Mallett and for Tim Davidson.
NANCY GRACE: Daniel Wells taken into custody pending trial then on April 20, 2020, justice
takes an unexpected turn. TONY ADAME: I was at home around 6:00 AM, and I got a call from Chuck Mallett.
He told me that Daniel Wells had committed suicide in his cell at Escambia County Jail.
When you try to get in the mind of somebody that commits suicide, that is entirely different.
You never know what real reason that they committed it-- a guilty conscience. They didn't want their family to suffer what he
was gonna have to go through. NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: I was disappointed. I was very much looking forward to facing him at a trial.
So I was disappointed that he had taken this coward's way out, that he could not even survive two weeks in jail
after he deprived this woman of her life 35 years ago and had been living free for 35 years.
I can see where any family might feel cheated by that. They didn't get a chance to confront him,
and so sometimes that's something that's highly desirable to the family. And I know that they felt cheated for not
having that opportunity. NANCY GRACE: It takes 35 years for detectives to finally nail Tonya McKinley's killer.
It would never have been possible without the precise work of crime scene investigators
back in 1985. They secured and preserved evidence which years later proved essential.
[MUSIC PLAYING] MIKE MANEY: It gives you a feeling of pride to know that not only you but the other people
that you work with do the best they can and do whatever is needed to try and solve a case.
I was just really happy to be able to help and play a part in this. There were a lot of different components in this as far
as the work from the original detectives all the way through to Parabon and FDLE
and Captain Mallett, our crime scene people. So even just having a small corner of the investigation,
it was rewarding. There's a sense of accomplishment. It was nice to be able to give closure to a case that's
been lingering. There was a lot of interest in this case from the older detectives when I first became one in solving it,
and there was always the hope that eventually someone would be able to do so. So it was nice to be able to give them that
and to play a part in it. NANCY GRACE: The role of forensic genetic genealogy is the other essential ingredient
in cracking Tonya McKinley's brutal rape and savage murder. NICOLE HEINTZELMAN: I don't believe
it would have been solved without genetic genealogy-- Wells, unless he had committed a crime
to have his DNA put into CODIS, he would have remained undetectable. So this case has been solved because of genetic genealogy.
NANCY GRACE: Tanya McKinley's son Tim was just 18 months old when his mother was savagely murdered.
Some say he never really knew his mother, but that bond between mother and child
is so deep and so eternal, it will always exist. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with us here at "Bloodline Detectives."
[END THEME PLAYING]

Pensacola, Florida, 1985, the body of 23-year-old Tonya McKinley is found lying in the street early morning on New Year’s Day. Detectives can’t find the killer until decades later when a new forensic science tool links DNA from a recovered cigarette butt to the perpetrator of this vicious murder.

Now in its third season, Bloodline Detectives is the leading true crime series that explores how police departments harness genetic genealogy to solve crimes that were once considered "unsolvable," bringing long-awaited answers to victims' families.

=============== Like, comment and subscribe if you’re ready for more true crime. Your favorite shows like World’s Most Evil Killers, Meet Marry Murder, Forensic Files, Unsolved Mysteries, Murdered At First Sight and Bloodline Detectives are all available to stream 24/7 for free via the FilmRise Streaming Network. You can access The FilmRise Streaming Network through most free App Platforms and Smart TV portals such as Amazon Fire TV, The Roku Channel, Android, iOS and many more.

Brief Summary

The episode recounts Tonya McKinley's 1985 murder and how genetic genealogy led to suspect Daniel Wells' identification and arrest.

Key points

The Discovery of a Body. On New Year's Day 1985, the body of Tonya McKinley is found, sparking a complex investigation.
The Case Goes Cold. Despite extensive investigation, Tonya McKinley's murder case goes cold after a year of dead ends.
A Breakthrough in Forensics. In 2018, genetic genealogy technology offers new hope in solving Tonya's murder.
Daniel Wells Named Suspect. Cold case investigators identify Daniel Wells as the prime suspect in Tonya McKinley's murder.
Wells' Arrest. Detectives conduct a traffic stop to arrest Daniel Wells, the prime suspect.
DNA Match Confirmed. After 35 years, DNA evidence links Daniel Wells to the murder of Tonya McKinley.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He strangled her and then dumped her like a piece of trash.

Nancy Grace on the brutality of the crime.

0:25WatchApr 17, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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