The Murder of 16-Year-Old Carol Sue Klaber | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: Boone County, Kentucky, 1976. A passerby discovers the body of a girl on a roadside.
As a police officer, there are many times where you get called to a scene where there are dead bodies.
Thankfully, fewer of them involve children. NANCY GRACE: But this case involves a teenager, a teenager who has been raped and murdered.
Our female victim was partially clothed with a bra and a shirt. And additionally, there was some jewelry located on her
that was taken from the scene as well. NANCY GRACE: The murder leaves the victim's
family struggling for answers. Who in their right mind is with someone and decides,
tonight, I'm going to take this person's life. That's just beyond my comprehension.
NANCY GRACE: The investigation that follows lasts over 40 years, until the emergence
of a revolutionary forensic technique. This would not have been solved without that science.
It completely changed the investigation here. And I'm very excited about the possibilities
that it could lead in the future. Will this case ever be closed, even with cutting-edge science
and determined investigators? I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC]
Boone County, Kentucky, a quiet rural community just across the state line from Cincinnati, Ohio.
We moved here in 1965. It was very, very different then than what it's like now.
It's overpopulated. It's grown. There's hardly any, you know, woodlands left. There's apartments and stores everywhere.
I liked it the old way, but, you know, you have to go with what's going on. We don't have a lot of murders here,
but when we do have murders, they tend to be the scratch your head, who done it kind of murders.
NANCY GRACE: On the morning of June 5, 1976, a local driving to work makes a horrific discovery.
As he was making his way across Chambers Road, he saw what he believed to be a body laying there.
And then, as he got out of the vehicle and looked at it, he realized that this was a young female,
and was partially clothed. She obviously was deceased. And that was the phone call that he made to the Kentucky
State Police post. NANCY GRACE: The first officer on the scene, Trooper Jan Hotchner.
Very soon, more police follow. COY COX: There was a young white female. Appeared to be about 16, 17 years of age.
She was only wearing her bra and a white blouse, and then, she was unclothed the rest of her body.
There was a lot of blood. You could see there had been trauma to her head. NANCY GRACE: Investigators searched the area
for any tangible evidence hoping for clues left behind by the killer. Our female victim was partially
clothed with a bra and a shirt. And that was really, at least, initially, sort of the big evidence.
And additionally, there was some jewelry that was located on her that was taken from the scene as well.
COY COX: On those items specifically, there were also hairs that were taken as evidence.
The body was removed from the scene on Chambers Road to the office in Florence, Kentucky,
at Stith Funeral Home. It is so often the case that, at the very early stages in a homicide, police have a body, yes, they
have some evidence, yes, but what they don't have is an identity of the victim. They still don't have a name.
Detective Keith started working his case throughout the day, and as the night wore on,
then Mrs. Reneker had called to report her daughter was missing. She hadn't come home.
She'd been gone all night. And Detective Jerry Keith went to the residence. He had described the necklace that he had found,
the two necklaces and the earring. And when he described that, Betty said, yes, that's Carol's.
He felt sure then that, hey, this was her daughter. To make positive identification, there has to be a viewing.
DEBBIE PONDER: They needed someone to come and identify the body. So Thomas, her older brother, who was 18,
he stepped up, and identified that it was Carol Sue. NANCY GRACE: An autopsy reveals how
Carol Sue Klaber was murdered. COY COX: The result of it was the death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head.
She was hit many, many times in the head. And that was the cause of death. But there was also attempted strangulation
with the necklaces that she was wearing. DEBBIE PONDER: And it was assumed a tire iron that he used to bash her head, seven injuries.
And head wounds bleed, you know? You can have a small scratch, and you know that it will bleed.
I cannot imagine the-- the crime scene. It had to be horrendous. NANCY GRACE: Carol's cousin hears the awful news.
DEBBIE PONDER: I doubted myself, to be quite honest with you. It was such a shock.
I looked at my mom and I said, mom, you know, is it Carol Sue Klaber? Right? Our cousin?
Yes. Oh, mom, you know, she was murdered. So my mother, of course, became very upset.
And at that time, we didn't have cell phones, and the only phone was a payphone at the dock.
So she took off out of the cabin and went to the dock and called home, and I'm certain she called my great grandmother,
her grandmother. A beautiful teen girl, brutally raped and murdered. Only a few clues left behind in a quiet, neighborly community
that's in shock. Will the killer of teen girl Carol Klaber ever be found? Next, on "Bloodline Detectives."
[MUSIC PLAYING] Walton, Kentucky, June, 1976. The body of a beautiful teen girl, Carol Klaber,
found dumped by the roadside. Carol had been raped, and then struck repeatedly with blunt force.
Investigators have very little to go on as they piece together clues found there in this remote location.
COY COX: We have had several bodies over the years that are dumped immediately close to Interstate 75.
m where her body was found, it would have taken quite a while for the person to drive to that location and to dump her body.
So the actual location she was in, it was really unusual. For local investigators, everything so far seems
very unusual about the case. Adding to that, the brutality of what happened to Carol
is frightening an entire community. It takes what is otherwise a very safe community
and it makes them afraid, especially for it to happen at a place like Devou Park, a place
you feel safe, that families go to routinely, that people can walk. There was fear.
There was a lot of fear in a lot of the girls at school. Myself and our friends, we made
a basic constant social rule, if we arrived together, and we go somewhere together, we all leave together.
It just made you more aware of what could happen, that loss of innocence, so to speak.
When investigators chase down possible clues from the crime scene, they also focus on another angle.
Who is Carol Klaber? Is it possible she knew her killer? BRIAN OXMAN: Carol was a 16-year-old young high school
girl. She went to Dixie High School in Kentucky. Her family was well-to-do. Her father was an engineer in the oil industry,
and he brought up a daughter that he was going to cherish his whole life. She played the piano.
She played lawn darts, and she would play croquet. DEBBIE PONDER: She was vivacious, but not gregarious.
Fun, intelligent, very smart, very athletic, very comfortable to be around. More taking almost a leadership role in social situations.
Dependable. You know, you knew she was a friend. She was that type of person. You just knew she was-- she was the personality
that would be a friend. Carol was a Girl Scout, and she was a Brownie. Now, in Kentucky, this was middle America,
where there were values about growing up and being a part of the community. And that was Carol.
Because her father felt that. Her father died in 1970. It was a terrible impact upon her.
And she wanted to fulfill what her dad wanted, and that was to be someone who cared.
Because when you are a part of the Girl Scouts of America, you have a value of caring for people.
And in return, those people care about you. MYRNA SHERMAN: Easy to make friends with, real easy to talk to.
But she also was kind of quiet. And it kind of took her a while, to you know, to come to get to know people.
But once she got to know you, she was like-- and if she was a friend to you, that's what she was.
DEBBIE PONDER: She was a success story in the works. Her talent, her intelligence, her willingness to reach out
to other people was very rare. She was-- she was a gift. She was a beautiful person.
NANCY GRACE: Details begin to emerge about the teen girl's movements the day of her murder.
DEBBIE PONDER: At that time, some details were shared with my mother that she had been riding her bike
and came home and said that she was going out to dinner with a man. COY COX: They.
Placed her bicycle in the trunk of the car. She got into the car with him and drove back
to her house, which is a very strong indication that that was someone that she knew.
When they got back to the house, she took the bike out of the car, put it in the garage,
went upstairs. Her mom heard her. She said she was headed out to go to Zeno's, which was a restaurant, with some friends.
And so as she goes out the door, mom didn't actually see her eye to eye, and she looks out the window,
and she had changed her purple blouse to a white blouse and got into the vehicle with a gentleman.
The vehicle was described by a lady across the street being a newer model Pontiac Grand Prix
or Chevy Monte Carlo. And she gave a description, an amazing description of the individual as being 5' 10", slender build,
approximately 150 pounds. Real light blond hair. Detective Keith had looked at some other cases in the area
that were unsolved, and there was a sketch in one of those cases he would have considered at that time
a companion case that he thought was related to this one. So there was a sketch that eventually, in the Klaber case,
was kind of put out, if anyone recognizes this, because he believed at the time that the same person who did
a rape case in Park Hills, Kentucky, was the same person who would have done Carol Klaber's rape and murder.
NANCY GRACE: Investigators in 1976 feel they're beginning to make progress. They've got a decent description of the suspect
and a possible link to another rape case. COY COX: There were several girls that had been raped and murdered in the greater Cincinnati
area during that time period, so much so that Detective Keith met with other police agencies to, you know,
kind of have a little think tank and see the commonality and all of those kinds of things.
And out of those type of meetings was where he decided that the Park Hills case was really close.
There were a lot of similarities in the two cases, cigarette burns on the body, attempted strangulation.
And honestly, when we went back and reviewed the case, we really saw his point, so much so that we ended up
going all the way down that road to the suspect that he had originally identified in that case.
Investigators in Boone County, Kentucky, have come so close to finding the vicious rapist and killer
that preyed on a young teen girl, but close is not good enough. As we see next on "Bloodline Detectives,"
it may take 40 years and groundbreaking science for "Bloodline Detectives" to try
their best to close this case. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's been 40 long years since the brutal rape
and murder of teen girl Carol Klaber in Boone County, Kentucky. Now, 2017, there's a new generation of detectives
who reopen the investigation. Over the years, we always thought about her. Myself, and I know some of her friends,
she would be on people's minds. I would drive past the Sheriff's Office and think about her every time.
Did they ever solve that? Why did we never hear anything more about that? Who was that person that took her life?
So she never leaves your mind. NANCY GRACE: The new cold case investigators pour over case files from Carol Klaber's murder.
Their hope? That advances in forensic DNA technology will lead them to the man who so cruelly took this teen girl's
life back in 1976. We went to Park Hills Police Department. There were no police officers still
at Park Hills PD from 1976. So everyone there was a different group, from chief on down.
It's a smaller department. They had nothing to do with the original investigation.
So when we went there, we asked if we could look at the case and make a copy of it.
And the chief, who I admire him for this, he said, hey, we will sign the case over to you if you want,
because it is simply sitting there because we have to keep it, and no one will ever look at it again.
There were two very strong suspects in this case, one of which was somebody who was incarcerated and is presently
incarcerated on charges unrelated to this murder, and then, there was another suspect that was just outright
exonerated through evidence related to this case through a DNA analysis. So we had two strong suspects.
And in any case, to have a suspect, let alone the possibility of two, and when those two don't pan out, that can be deflating.
And you really have to start back at square one as an agency, as a group of investigators.
We have to then refocus on, OK, what do we have left? We worked pretty closely with our cold case unit.
Whenever they have something come up, they usually bring it to us and ask us kind
of what the potential is, and what's the best way to go about testing. So in this particular circumstance,
the cold case unit had come across a hair that they thought could be of potential value that
was never fully exploited with modern technology. So they brought that to the criminal forensic unit,
and we took a look at it and proposed a plan for going forward with the testing.
Initially, we gave it to the Kentucky State Police. The Kentucky State Police for us is the laboratory
that handles all of our DNA testing, at least, for the first round. They had inconclusive results.
NANCY GRACE: The failure to extract a DNA profile is a huge disappointment to investigators,
but they don't give up. Whenever we have something, and particularly, in a cold case, where we have an item of evidence that
was brought to light by really good cold case investigators, we really have high hopes when we
see things like that that this could be the key. This could be the thing. And initial reports from the state police were like, hey,
I think we can maybe get something out of this. So it was positive in the beginning.
So when we got the inconclusive results, it was-- it was a setback. So often, there is a familiar pattern in cases like this.
First, a breakthrough. Then, a dead end. Then, another breakthrough, and that is exactly what happens in Carol Klaber's case, when
Othram Laboratories out of Texas, the world's leaders in forensic genetic genealogy,
reach out to Boone County investigators. COY COX: I started getting a lot of phone calls
from a representative from Othram, and most of that went along the lines of, hey, we are a lab.
We do genealogy. We want to help solve crimes. If you have cases with unknown DNA
profiles in the national CODIS database, then we want to help you. NANCY GRACE: Othram's work is expensive.
So Boone County detectives first need to find funding. COY COX: They had shared with us the information
about Season of Justice. The way they explained it was, look, if you talk to them
and apply for a grant, and your case meets this criteria, there's a really good chance they're going
to provide the funding for you. And again, it's like, yeah, this is too good to be true, but OK.
Let's do it. We received from the agency evidence of the assault. From that evidence, the agency had identified
an unknown male contributor. So there was male DNA that was found, and they thought that this male DNA came
from the person that had essentially assaulted and murdered her. The state lab created the DNA profile for STR testing first,
and then, that DNA was sent to us in a tube. NANCY GRACE: Short Tandem Repeat, STR analysis for short,
is a method that creates a person's DNA profile by counting the number of times a small DNA
sequence is repeated at a specific chromosomal location. Hair has very different DNA parameters than other types
of inputs, for sure, and would be something that would be difficult to run through a standard medical test
or consumer test assay. And I think that's why this case had failed previously in other laboratories.
We were able to assess the characteristics of that DNA extract and figure out what the best way to go about creating
the best and most robust DNA profile would be that we could use to identify who that perpetrator was.
BRIAN COCHRAN: Forensic genetic genealogy kind of has, in my mind, two prongs. There is one prong that is scientific, where we look
at DNA and genetics and relations between people over time, and we use that angle.
Also included in that would be Y chromosomal testing, where we just look at the male side of the family.
And then, there's a whole other prong that goes through very traditional genealogy research,
like family tree sort of stuff that most folks are familiar with that you couple with that scientific
information in this day and age. And, hopefully, it gets us to an investigative lead.
KRISTEN MITTELMAN: That DNA is uploaded to genealogical databases consented for law enforcement use,
and when they're uploaded, you end up getting really, really distant matches. So instead of just being able to confirm someone's identity,
you can now figure out that someone is related to this person as a sixth cousin match,
and this person is a fifth cousin match, and this person is a third cousin match.
And you can figure out how far away each match is from the person that left the DNA at the crime scene,
and then, you can infer where the person that left the DNA at the crime scene belongs in a family tree.
And in doing that, we were then able to derive enough matches, enough people that shared
at least some similarity in the markers to which we could then piece together a family tree.
And in building that family tree, we were able to hone in on leads that directed law
enforcement to where we thought the person might sit on that tree. I was a little skeptical.
However, when Othram said that they had a good profile, and they thought that it was something
that they could do something with early on, then I was extremely hopeful. It's been 46 years since teen girl Carol Klaber's
horrific sex attack and murder. And now, investigators finally have a powerful scientific weapon that may identify her killer.
That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] Boone County, Kentucky, 2022.
Detectives on the cusp of discovering who killed teen girl Carol Klaber all the way back in 1976.
Investigators have provided Othram Labs with a hair sample that was found at the crime scene 46 years ago.
That hair sample hits a home run. It rules out the existing persons of interest,
but crucially, it points to a new name and a new prime suspect. Because they had an STR profile,
they were able to do one-to-one comparisons to exclude suspects. And I think there was two people early on that were identified
and ruled out because their STR profiles did not match at all the STR profile of the crime scene.
And so even though there was an early hope for success when they had identified these suspects,
both were excluded. And so after the process we went through at Othram to build up
the big profile and develop the leads, we came across, you know, eventually the person
that they honed in on. His name was Thomas Dunaway. It was very exciting to be able to share that with them
because they had a new suspect in the case. 40 years after the brutal sex assault and murder
of Carol Klaber, a prime suspect is revealed thanks to investigative genetic genealogy.
The perp's name? Thomas Dunaway, last known to be a resident of Park Hills, Kentucky.
And like the murder victim, Carol Klaber, Dunaway is a teen at the time of the murder.
When detectives zero in on Dunaway, they discover he's got an extensive and violent
criminal history, including arson and possession of an illegal firearm. When they dig deeper, investigators find out
Thomas Dunaway is dead. He died from a heart attack in 1990. Detectives are denied the chance to ever question him.
But news from Othram Labs confirms he's guilty. The news that we got back was this was a 100% match.
Thomas Dunaway is your guy that committed the crime. Thomas Dunaway is who we, through the DNA profile,
identified as Carol Klaber's murderer. After 47 years, finally tracking down the killer,
finally identifying Mr. Dunaway as the killer was an extremely, extremely gratifying experience.
We wanted to have something in writing formally, both for the family and for the community,
to say that Detectives Cox and Adams had found and identified the killer. And so we sent them a letter basically stating,
that while we cannot do a posthumous indictment, it was my opinion that they had identified the killer,
that there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thomas Dunaway had murdered Carol Sue Klaber,
and that had he been alive, we would seek an indictment and would seek to prosecute him for a murder.
NANCY GRACE: Cold case detectives discover that nine days after Klaber's body is found,
Thomas Dunaway enlists in the US Army. He goes AWOL. Then, he murders 19-year-old Ronald Townson in Boone County
just six months after the death of Carole Klaber. We believe that there's a really good chance
that Dunaway knew Carol Klaber from the time they were much younger. LOUIS KELLY: Northern Kentucky right now, it's
a small community in the sense that it's not hard to know everyone here, but it was a much
smaller community in 1976. So I think it is certainly plausible, if not likely, that he knew her and sought her out.
In fact, I think it would be unlikely to say that he didn't. DEBBIE PONDER: Knowing how generous she was
and how friendly she was, I imagined that she invited him to go to dinner with everybody.
Her friends were all going to Zeno's. And I imagine she said, come on, let's go.
You know, you can go with me. And probably said, well, hey, I'll drive. Because when you met somebody and you were friends,
you were always inviting them. Come on, let's go as a group. Let's go. I think that's what happened.
BRIAN OXMAN: Social scientists tell us that crimes of violence and sex crimes are not about sex.
It's hard to understand that. We think that this is a sexual predator who wants to have a sexual thrill.
The social scientists tell us, no, no, no. That's not what it is. The crime of violence is an issue of dominance, the issue
of taking this predator's personality and imposing it on someone who is weaker and unable
to defend themselves. That is usually the motive, not some sexual thrill. Well, we don't know.
We weren't there for Carol's murder. We can't say for certain. But what we can say is, generally speaking,
these sexual crimes are crimes to dominate and to humiliate a woman. And where that comes from, only the good Lord seems to know.
NANCY GRACE: Boone County Law Enforcement goes public with the news, in part, to tell the community
this case is finally solved. But they're also looking for any help in linking Dunaway to other crimes in Kentucky and beyond.
In this case, we did a press conference because of the nature of us solving a cold case
that was nearly 50 years old. But also, given the implications with this case, and the strong belief that he may
be responsible for other crimes, possibly outside of the state of Kentucky, is also one of the central focuses of what I had
to do in relaying a message to the public that was understandable and that people could
then take and absorb so that it may benefit our case as a whole. The initial cause of death was blunt force
trauma, with also evidence of sexual assault and strangulation. It was a bit shocking, actually.
I was working from home, and I have multiple computers, and it came into my news feed.
And of course, name. I'm sitting at home by myself, and I just, oh my gosh. They found him.
And I saw the picture. That's the picture that they used in the news of her. You know, so I knew there was no mistake.
This was not a spam, a made up thing. I immediately picked up the phone and called the Sheriff's Department and thanked them.
It was-- I'm very grateful. Very grateful that they followed up and they solved the crime.
Thomas Dunaway was definitely in Boone County around that period of time, because he
was arrested for a murder in December of 1976. So Carol went missing and was found raped and murdered
on June the 5th, 1976, and six months later, now, this person that has been identified that, hey, this is someone you
definitely should look at committed a murder in Boone County six months later. I was literally floored.
Because he had murdered someone else, dumped them in near about the same place, and received a life sentence in prison,
I believe, and he only served 7 and 1/2 years of his prison sentence. And it's like, once a liar, always a liar.
Once a thief, always a thief. Once a killer, always a killer, you know? It's not going to stop.
If this were in Kentucky, in my circuit right now, I would have a hard time believing someone
who committed an intentional murder would be out after seven years. There's no way in the world you can make any sense of it.
When I read the report from the parole officer-- so he got out on good behavior at 7 and 1/2
years on a life sentence. But what was documented in the report was enough to-- even if they needed more than the fact
that he had killed someone, they articulated all kinds of infractions while he was in there,
which you would think, like, yeah, you're not getting out. I have-- I have no explanation.
It's, in my opinion, a complete failure on the justice system. He should have not been out.
How do you tell how? Do you tell that that person has the capacity to do this when you meet someone?
That was the first thing that came to mind. Were there clues of his personality?
COY COX: He was where he should have been, especially now that we know that he not only did one murder,
but he did two murders and a rape. And what we believe to be more across the Southern United
States. Because three would make him a serial killer. I just wish justice had sent him there.
But that's not mine to judge. I'm not a judge, and I'm not God. NANCY GRACE: "Bloodline Detectives"
nail the identity of teen girl Carol Klaber's killer. It's Thomas Dunaway. But investigators now believe Dunaway is responsible for even
more murders. Next, on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] Boone County, Kentucky, 2022.
Amazing forensic work by "Bloodline Detectives" solves the 46-year-old sex assault
and murder of a beautiful young girl, Carol Klaber. Her killer, Thomas Dunaway, also convicted of another murder
before he himself dies in 1990. Since there was a seven-year period between his release
from jail from the murder of the second victim and Dunaway's own death, investigators
believe he very well may have committed even more murders. Due to some information developed by cold case
detectives, there was the potential that he could have been involved in others. And the best way to help the other agencies that may have
had him as a suspect is to acquire a solid DNA sample from Mr. Dunaway himself. Since Mr. Dunaway had been dead for 33 years,
that meant that we had to exhume the body. And the bone that was requested in this case
was ribs and molars. Those held the best potential for the DNA evidence. So myself and Detective Goodman suited up, full Tyvek,
and anticipated getting into the grave, recovering that bone, and being done. That is, unfortunately, not what happened at all.
In this particular circumstance, after 33 years, Mr. Dunaway looked like he had been put in the ground
yesterday. So what that meant was that with a fully preserved body, we had to climb into the grave, remove the teeth and rib bones.
We have solved our crime, but the exhumation and everything else was for the sole function of seeing if we
could solve somebody else's. NANCY GRACE: Kentucky State Police, currently working on samples in the hopes
of linking Thomas Dunaway to even more unsolved murders. While his untimely death means he cheated justice,
credit still goes to Boone County sheriffs who persisted for four decades in this investigation.
DEBBIE PONDER: I'm very thankful to the Boone County Sheriff's Department for not letting this go.
It would have been easy just to say that's a cold case and we have other things that are more pressing,
which you will hear that in the judicial system. We have other cases that are bigger.
We have things that are larger. We have things that affect now. And that they didn't walk away from her,
I'm very impressed and very grateful. BRIAN COCHRAN: One of the reasons that we do this job is to speak for victims.
That's why we do this, is to do the right thing. And in this particular circumstance,
we got to do that. And Miss Klaber still had family that was very, very much interested in what had happened to her.
And we were able to give them that little peace of mind. NANCY GRACE: Carol Klaber's killer
is identified thanks to investigative genetic genealogy, a powerful new investigative tool
Othram Labs is using to solve cold cases all across our country. Even if Season of Justice had said, you know what?
For whatever reason, we're not going to fund it. They would have found a way. Othram was committed.
And I've learned that from dealing with them over this period of time. They would have found a way to make sure that it got funded.
We wouldn't be sitting here today talking about solving Carol Klaber's case if it wasn't for Othram
and Season of Justice. I think if they realized that they were going to get caught,
and that it's a matter of time, that less crime would be committed in the future.
But I also believe that maybe more people will start coming forward and confessing.
The times, they are a changing. And as a result of that, there's new techniques.
Therefore, you are duty bound as law enforcement, as Boone County law enforcement recognized,
and I give them high marks for doing that. LOUIS KELLY: It completely changed the investigation here,
and I'm very excited about the possibilities that it could lead in the future, for future investigations, and, potentially,
resolving other cold cases we have in this community. When you have breakthroughs in science, and then,
that science is used for the greater good, in any case, whether it's a cold case, or a more active,
ongoing murder investigation, sexual assault, whatever it may be, that's really a game-changer and something that the community
should really embrace. NANCY GRACE: After more than 40 years, the murder of 16-year-old Carol Klaber, finally
solved, thanks to law enforcement who never gave up, and to the power of forensic science.
DEBBIE PONDER: After all this time, somebody valued her as a person enough to put their energy into this on her behalf.
She's not here. She can't hold them accountable. She can't hold the Boone County or the Kentucky State Police
accountable for what happens in solving the murder. They did this on their own. And that's an honor to her, in my opinion.
I don't think you ever can get back your loved one, or justice can take back what happened to you
or to someone you cared about. But I think that the truth can allow you to move forward.
Groundbreaking science and great police work, each one amazing in their own right.
But when they are combined, even 46-year-old cases like Carol Klaber's murder can be solved.
I'm Nancy Grace. Thanks for joining us here on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING]
[THEME MUSIC]

Summer of 1976, the body of 16-year-old Carol Sue Klaber is found in a roadside ditch in Walton, Kentucky. She has been beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled. Fast forward to 2022, cutting-edge DNA science is employed to finally name the killer over 40 years later.

Now in its fourth 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 1976 murder of Carol Klaber is solved 46 years later through advanced DNA technology, identifying Thomas Dunaway as her killer.

Key points

The Discovery of Carol Klaber's Body. In June 1976, a passerby discovers the body of a young girl, leading to a chilling investigation.
The Brutality of the Crime. An autopsy reveals the horrific details of Carol's murder, shocking her family and community.
A New Generation of Detectives. In 2017, cold case investigators reopen Carol's case, hoping for breakthroughs with modern technology.
A New Prime Suspect. After decades, a hair sample leads investigators to a new prime suspect in Carol's murder.
Investigative Genetic Genealogy Breakthrough. Othram Labs uses DNA profiling to solve a decades-old murder case.
Cold Case Solved After 47 Years. The murder of Carol Klaber is finally solved, identifying Thomas Dunaway as the killer.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

That's just beyond my comprehension.

Nancy Grace reflects on the murderer's mindset.

1:04WatchMay 19, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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