Murder charges filed in 34-year-old case in Oklahoma

Oklahoma’s attorney general said that, cigarette butts and fingerprints from an Oklahoma rest stop found 35 years ago have led a suspect being identified and filing of charges in a cold case.

In a press release from the side of Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter’s office, 55-year-old Earl Wilson has been charged with first-degree murder for the death of Paul Aikman in 1985.

Hunter noted that the advances in DNA technology are allowing the authorities to take another look at the difficult and cold cases.

Just because cases go cold does not mean that someone should not be held responsible for their crimes, even if it is after three decades, he added.

The Court records do not show if Wilson has retained an attorney yet.

According to press release, Aikman was stabbed to death at a rest stop on the Turner Turnpike in Lincoln County, in September 1985. The turnpike connects Oklahoma City and Tulsa, which are the two largest cities of the state.

The release also added that the agents from Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation collected the cigarette butts as well as the latent fingerprints from the crime scene, which made it possible for the investigators to develop the DNA profile of a suspect, but no matches were found at the time.

As no match was found at that time, so the case went cold, and it remained a cold case for 33 years.

While, last year, a search by the OSBI criminalists of the national DNA database CODIS found a potential match to the DNA which was recovered from the rest stop.

Criminalists then matched the latent fingerprint impression which was taken from the crime scene to the fingerprints of Wilson.

Prison records show that Wilson is currently in an Oklahoma prison for a sexual battery conviction.

Paul Aikman’s family ached not knowing who was responsible for his murder for 35 years said Ricky Adams, the director of the OSBI.