PRESS RELEASES
Contact Us Tel: (508) 755-
225 Main St., Room G-
2011 © Worcester County District Attorney’s Office Website Privacy Policy.
CONTACT:
TIM CONNOLLY
508-
508-
Paul Jarvey
508-
T & G Video:
MAY 11, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: TIM CONNOLLY 508-
O
WORCESTER – Nearly 19 years after Denise Comeau’s body was found burned in a fire in an abandoned building on Austin Street, her murder has been solved through DNA testing, according to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.
James Earl Johnson was exhumed from a cemetery in Tuskegee, Ala. last October and tissue from his body was transported to Massachusetts and analyzed at the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory. Mr. Johnson had been a suspect in several rapes and Ms. Comeau’s murder.
“On Monday, we learned that the DNA from Mr. Johnson’s body was match for the DNA recovered from the autopsy of Ms. Comeau and DNA profiles found in two rape kits from the 1990s,” Mr. Early said. “The match means that Mr. Johnson was responsible for killing Ms. Comeau and for a rape in May 1993 and a rape in September of 1995.”
The investigation of the unsolved murder in 1992 led investigators from the Worcester Police Unresolved Homicide Unit and the Worcester District Attorney’s Office to seek the exhumation of Mr. Johnson’s body.
“I want to thank District Attorney E. Paul Jones of the Fifth Judicial Circuit in Alabama for his assistance in closing these cases,” Mr. Early said. “Worcester detectives Dan Sullivan, Bill Donovan and Maureen Siedlecki did great work piecing together connections between these cases. We hope that this development can give some closure to the victims’ families.”
Mr. Johnson lived Worcester from the 1970s to the ’90s.
James Earl Johnson was exhumed from a cemetery in Tuskegee, Ala. last October and tissue from his body was transported to Massachusetts and analyzed at the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory. Mr. Johnson had been a suspect in several rapes and Ms. Comeau’s murder.
“On Monday, we learned that the DNA from Mr. Johnson’s body was match for the DNA recovered from the autopsy of Ms. Comeau and DNA profiles found in two rape kits from the 1990s,” Mr. Early said. “The match means that Mr. Johnson was responsible for killing Ms. Comeau and for a rape in May 1993 and a rape in September of 1995.”
The investigation of the unsolved murder in 1992 led investigators from the Worcester Police Unresolved Homicide Unit and the Worcester District Attorney’s Office to seek the exhumation of Mr. Johnson’s body.
“I want to thank District Attorney E. Paul Jones of the Fifth Judicial Circuit in Alabama for his assistance in closing these cases,” Mr. Early said. “Worcester detectives Dan Sullivan, Bill Donovan and Maureen Siedlecki did great work piecing together connections between these cases. We hope that this development can give some closure to the victims’ families.”
Mr. Johnson lived Worcester from the 1970s to the ’90s.
On Dec. 11, 1992, firefighters battling a blaze in an abandoned building in Worcester found the corpse of Ms.Comeau, 30. An autopsy showed that she was strangled before the fire burned her body. Forensic evidence was recovered during the autopsy and was preserved.
As part of a special effort to solve long unsolved crimes, the male DNA recovered with Ms. Comeau’s body was compared with male DNA from two rapes during the 1990s. In one of those rapes Mr. Johnson was identified as a suspect. However, he was not arrested because the victim did not wish to go forward with a charge. The DNA match indicates that the man who committed the rapes also killed Ms. Comeau.
In 2007, when some of the DNA analysis occurred, the statute of limitations for one the rapes was about to expire. To keep the case alive, Assistant District Attorney Joseph Quinlan presented evidence of the rape to the Worcester County Grand Jury. That presentation led to an indictment of a John Doe who was linked to the DNA.
Both rape victims have since died and Mr. Johnson died in 2008 at age 58.
As part of a special effort to solve long unsolved crimes, the male DNA recovered with Ms. Comeau’s body was compared with male DNA from two rapes during the 1990s. In one of those rapes Mr. Johnson was identified as a suspect. However, he was not arrested because the victim did not wish to go forward with a charge. The DNA match indicates that the man who committed the rapes also killed Ms. Comeau.
In 2007, when some of the DNA analysis occurred, the statute of limitations for one the rapes was about to expire. To keep the case alive, Assistant District Attorney Joseph Quinlan presented evidence of the rape to the Worcester County Grand Jury. That presentation led to an indictment of a John Doe who was linked to the DNA.
Both rape victims have since died and Mr. Johnson died in 2008 at age 58.