The 1985 slaying of a 20-year-old Burnsville college student who was gunned down while walking home from a party in upstate New York is the subject of a podcast released this month, according to producers.
An episode of Method and Madness,” a true crime podcast, will focus on the death of Kristin O’Connell, who was murdered in Ovid, NY, while visiting a friend. She disappeared after leaving a party to go for a walk. Her body was not found two days later in a cornfield a quarter mile from the friend’s house. His throat was cut.
The investigation into O’Connell’s killing made headlines after criminal investigators accused the New York Department of Health of blocking efforts to use a sophisticated DNA technique to try to solve the crime.
State police said they were promised funding from the county to hire a Dutch team specializing in DNA techniques to solve cold homicides, but health officials blocked the test, saying the team was not certified in New York .
A petition was created by requiring an outside lab to test the DNA from the case. By last weekend, more than 3,900 people had signed it.
State Police Investigator Jeffrey T. Arnold said detectives believe two men between the ages of 16 and 19 who were seen walking behind O’Connell that night killed the young woman.
“We believe this is our last and best effort to solve this case,” Seneca County District Attorney Richard Swinehart said at the time.
Swinehart said the testing, along with an audio tape of an anonymous call to state police a week after the murder, gives investigators a real chance to solve the case.
Arnold said the call directed state police to search for a green Chevrolet parked on Main Street in Waterloo, NY. The car has never been found, he said, but investigators hope to locate the caller, who spoke with a slight accent.
The caller told state police he was leaving town and told the killer not to commit the murder.
