A New Jersey mini-race-car buff has been identified as the man suspected of killing a teen girl and another young woman more than 30 years ago.
Francis T. Schooley committed suicide in 2000 at age 39, but that didn’t stop investigators from using DNA to tie him to the decades-old cold-case murders of Marebeth Welsh, 24, in 1993 and Jennifer Persia, 16, in 1994, the Camden County Prosecutors Office announced Thursday.
“Thanks to remarkable advances in DNA technology and diligent detective work, we have finally been able to bring answers to two families who have waited decades for justice,” Camden County Prosecutor Grace MacAulay said in a statement.
Welsh of Woodlyne was found strangled to death before dawn on a Camden street Nov. 14, 1993, according to a probable-cause statement. Police said it appeared she had been killed at another location and dumped there.
She had been sexually assaulted, and blood was coming from her nose and she had no shoes and one sock on when her body was found.
Welsh’s shirt, underwear and the swabs collected from her body tested positive for sperm — but officials found no match blood samples from the five potential male suspects they tested, including her estranged husband and two men she was living with at the time, prosecutors said.
On the night of April 4, 1994, Persia was then found slaughtered on the floor of her living room in Magnolia, with a bind tied around her neck and multiple stab wounds.
She died from multiple incised wounds to the neck and chest, strangulation and multiple sharp and blunt injuries, officials determined.
Police collected samples of blood from Persia’s socks and the master-bedroom closet, which showed the blood was from an unidentified man. The data was entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, with no results for a match.
Schooley killed himself less than a decade later, reports said.
Both of the women’s murder cases meanwhile were cold till a breakthrough came decades later when testing revealed that DNA recovered from Welsh’s clothing was found to match that of the unknown male found at the scene of Persia’s murder, prosecutors said.
Now that there was a connection to the cases, the authorities dug further and discovered Schooley could be tied to both women.
He had connections to Persia’s family, including through working at the auto shop her stepfather partially owned and doing construction on his house.
Schooley also was part-owner of a mini race car sponsored by the stepdad’s mechanic business, prosecutors said.
One of Schooley’s siblings said they had seen their brother with Welsh in the past, too, after investigators showed them a photograph.
After additional swab samples and interviews with Schooley’s family members, investigators determined that he was the source of the DNA found in both cases.
Schooley has been dead for 26 years – but prosecutors are confident they have sufficient probably cause to charge him if he were still alive.
However, authorities said there is sufficient probable cause that he would have been charged in both killings if he were still alive.
“These cases never left the minds of our investigators, even as the years passed,” MacAulay said.
