INNOVATIVE LEGAL AND INVESTIGATIVE TECHNIQUES SOLVE 42-YEAR-OLD HOMICIDE CASE

(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney and Suffolk County Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison today announced the solving of the murder of Eve Wilkowitz, whose body was found 42 years ago in Bay Shore this month.
 

“We tackled this case as soon as I got into office and figured out a way to legally expedite the exhumation of Ms. Wilkowitz’s suspected killer in order to truly confirm what investigators knew all along,” said Tierney. “I hope this brings closure and comfort to her loved ones knowing that we never truly stopped looking for the person responsible for cutting her young life short.”

“Today’s announcement marks the end of a more than four-decades-long investigation by Suffolk County Police detectives who never gave up on the pursuit of justice for Eve Wilkowitz,” said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison. “I applaud all of our partners in this effort, especially Irene Wilkowitz, who never lost faith in our investigators’ dedication to solving her sister’s murder and kept her memory alive.”

According to her friends and coworker, Wilkowitz was last seen alive on March 22, 1980. She had been employed as a secretary for a publishing company in Manhattan and was reported to have boarded the 12:39 a.m. Long Island Railroad train at Penn Station for purposes of returning to her home in Bay Shore.
 

Wilkowitz, who was 20 years-old at the time, never made it home. Her live-in boyfriend reported her missing that same day. Her body was recovered on March 25 on the lawn of a property located at 26 Center Avenue in Bay Shore. When she was discovered, she was missing her coat, blouse, shoes and pocketbook. There were ligature marks on her wrists and there were signs that she had been raped. The cause of her death was later determined to be manual strangulation. Samples of fluids that did not belong to Wilkowitz were obtained from her body and stored in evidence for years.

In May of 2000, the SCPD Homicide Squad resubmitted swabs obtained from the victim for further DNA testing based on new DNA technology, specifically, Short Tandem Repeat (STR) DNA technology. Utilizing the new technology, the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory was able to develop a DNA profile from the swabs. The DNA profile was identified in the sperm fraction of the swab and was consistent with an admixture of DNA from an unknown male and Wilkowitz. The unknown male DNA profile was developed in July, 2000 to date, there have been no Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) hits to this profile.

Sometime in or around the beginning of 2019, SCPD Homicide Squad Detective Jeffrey Bottari was assigned to this investigation. In an effort to further the investigation, Det. Bottari requested that a Y-STR DNA analysis be performed by the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory for purposes of Familial Searching through the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). A full Y-STR profile was generated. Det. Bottari submitted this Y-STR profile to DCJS for Familial Searching. That search did not result in any investigative leads.

Det. Bottari thereafter utilized Genetic Genealogy to identify the unknown DNA in this murder investigation. Genetic Genealogy is a different DNA technique from STR-DNA in that a DNA profile is developed from different DNA markers known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs. A SNP profile can be compared against publicly available databases maintained by direct to consumer genealogy companies. Through the utilization of this method in conjunction with FBI Agent Laurie Giordano who specializes in this type of DNA analysis, a SNP profile was developed which lead to potential relatives of the unknown profile.
 

The potential suspect developed from the SNP genetic genealogy was Herbert V. Rice who had already passed away. Prior to his death Rice, lived on Central Ave. in Bay Shore, four houses away from where Wilkowitz’s body was first discovered and within walking distance, from the Bay Shore Railroad Station from which she was walking at the time of her disappearance.

Det. Bottari was able to track down a relative of Rice and who voluntarily provided a buccal swab for purposes of STR-DNA analysis in connection with this investigation. Det. Bottari also learned Rice died of natural causes and was buried on October 18, 1991 in Oakwood Cemetery in Bay Shore. The Suffolk County Crime Laboratory obtained a DNA profile from the relative’s sample for the purposes of further DNA analysis. That profile was then compared to the unidentified male DNA profile previously obtained from Wilkowitz. As a result of that comparison, the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory determined that the unknown DNA profile obtained from the aforementioned swabs belonged to Herbert V. Rice, a biological relative to the sample.

In the course of his continuing investigation Det. Bottari requested that the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office obtained a search warrant authorizing members of the SCPD, with the assistance of Oakwood Cemetery personnel, members of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office and members of the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory, to search Rice’s burial plot for the purpose of extracting Rice’s DNA directly from him to confirm he was the contributor of the male DNA obtained from Eve Wilkowitz. The warrant was authorized by Supreme Court Justice John B. Collins. Rice’s body was exhumed on March 10, 2022. The Suffolk County Chief Medical Examiner was present and removed bone from the decedent’s body for purposes of a DNA extraction. On Wednesday, March 23, 2022 an analyst from the Suffolk County Crime Lab Biological Sciences Section, confirmed Rice’s DNA is a match to the suspect profile developed from the aforementioned swabs from Wilkowitz.

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