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The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced this week the identity of a suspect in two unsolved cases dating back to the early 1990s.
In a press release on Monday, police said they had identified Eddie George Snowden, who would be 86 today, as a suspect in the murders of 31-year-old Lori Ann Perera and 35-year-old Pearl Wilson Ingram.
Lori Ann Perera was killed in 1992 and recent DNA technology advancements linked a suspect to her death. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
Perera’s body was found on Dec. 11, 1992, in a desert area near a retail store on East Charleston Blvd, and the Clark County Medical Examiner ruled her cause of death as asphyxia due to manual strangulation with blunt force trauma.
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Ingram’s body was found in a garbage receptacle behind a grocery store on the same street on Jan. 11, 1994.
Despite investigating both cases, detectives were unable to determine who killed both women, and the cases were assigned to the Homicide Cold Case Section.
Cold case stock file (iStock)
Detectives reviewed the murder of Perera on March 1, 2007, and requested further forensic DNA work be conducted on evidence recovered during the autopsy.
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The evidence resulted in a DNA profile that was then entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.
In July 2012, detectives were able to identify additional forensic evidence recovered in the case of Ingram, and had it submitted for further analysis.
As a result, the DNA matched in both cases, identifying Snowden as a possible suspect on June 30, 2022.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 28: A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department vehicle blocks traffic during the NV COVID Trace Community Activation at Life Time Athletic on October 28, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Activation was organized by Greg Chase of Experience Strategy Associates and Douglas Johnson of E+ Productions as a state wide PSA around COVID Trace, Nevada's contact tracing app. ((Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images for Experience Strategy Associates))
Cold case investigators obtained a DNA sample from Snowden’s biological family and said they were able to confirm he was the man who sexually assaulted and murdered Perera and Ingram.
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Snowden was born in January 1937 and investigators learned he died of natural causes in February 2017. Police said no arrests will be made in these cases.
After learning of the news, Perera’s oldest daughter, Desiree Copping, sent a letter to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that was shared on Facebook.
"On December 11, 1992, a loving daughter, mother of three daughters, sister, niece, cousin, and friend was tragically taken from this world," Copping wrote. "My mother was a beautiful person, who did not deserve to have her life ended at only 31 years old. No one deserves to have their life taken. She can now rest peacefully, knowing that her death will not remain unsolved."
Copping added that through the DNA technology, she was able to locate her youngest sister, who her mother put up for adoption in 1991.
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"My mom is our guardian angel and I know that she had a part in finding my sister," Copping said. "This was not a coincidence."
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