A man from a suburb of Portland, Oregon, has been sentenced for the murder of a 19-year-old college student in a 1980 cold case.
On Friday, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Amy Baggio sentenced Robert Plimpton, 60, to first-degree murder in the death of Barbara Mae Tucker, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Monday. announced that he had been found guilty.
Maryland State Police identify second suspect in unsolved murder of girl from more than a decade ago
The judge found Ms. Plimpton not guilty of rape or sexual abuse because prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it happened while she was still alive. He said it was for a reason. The coroner determined that Ms. Tucker had been sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death.
In 2021, genealogists at Parabon NanoLab used DNA technology to identify Plimpton as a likely DNA link to the case. Gresham police detectives found Plimpton, who lives in Troutdale, and began surveilling him, recovering some of the chewing gum he had spit on the ground, prosecutors said.
Police arrested Plimpton after the Oregon State Police crime lab determined that the DNA profile taken from the gum matched the DNA profile taken from a preserved swab taken from Tucker’s body. .
An Oregon man has been convicted after DNA technology linked him to the attempted murder of a college student in the 1980s. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June. (Fox News)
Mr. Tucker was scheduled to attend night classes at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham on January 15, 1980. Witnesses said Tucker was seen running from a bushy area on campus, and a man emerged from the area and led her away. She returned to campus. The next day, a student found Tucker’s body near the campus parking lot.
Multnomah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kirsten Snowden said there was no evidence that Tucker and Plimpton knew each other, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Ms Plimpton said she was innocent and did not match the description of the man seen dragging her into the bushes.
A verdict is expected to be handed down in June.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
