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FBI honors San Diego police for using NGI to crack 1987 cold-case
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Summary
The FBI presented its 2021 Biometric Identification Award to the San Diego Police Department after a fingerprint hit in the bureau's Next Generation Identification (NGI) system led investigators to a DNA match in a May 1987 homicide, culminating in a conviction and life sentence.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation presented its 2021 Biometric Identification Award to the San Diego Police Department, recognizing investigators whose use of the FBI's Next Generation Identification (NGI) system produced a breakthrough in a 1987 cold-case homicide.
Tony Johnson, a senior district attorney investigator with the San Diego District Attorney's cold case team, recounted that a 79-year-old woman was murdered in East San Diego in May 1987. Johnson said officers found the stove burners left on and that Detective Jim Clear lifted a latent print from chrome molding near the burners. At the time, Johnson said, DNA and latent-print databases were limited and investigators were unable to identify a suspect.
The case remained cold through early efforts, Johnson said, including a DNA profile submitted to CODIS in the 2000s that produced no hit. During a later migration from an older latent-print system to a newer platform, a latent-print examiner reviewed older cases the department had flagged and researched one of the prints in the FBI's NGI system. "This fingerprint hit was huge because finally after 31 years, we had a solid lead," Johnson said.
According to Johnson, the fingerprint hit identified a possible suspect (referred to in the transcript as "Mr. Ford"). Investigators obtained a search warrant, traveled to North Carolina, and collected the individual's DNA; Johnson said the DNA matched the crime-scene profile. He also said the person worked for a company called Wheelchair Transport and that investigators found a receipt from that company dated two days before the victim's murder indicating a trip to the victim's house, which Johnson described as corroborating evidence tying the individual to the scene.
Johnson said the suspect was sentenced to life without parole and is incarcerated in a California state prison in Salinas. Reflecting on the case, he said, "This NGI stuff is cool stuff. I mean, it's neat," and described the satisfaction cold-case investigators feel when new forensic tools produce leads.
The FBI's presentation highlighted how biometric databases can assist long-standing investigations; the public announcement encouraged law enforcement agencies to "tap into the power of NGI" and directed listeners to www.fbi.gov for more information. The transcript also includes a contact line for award nominations (rendered in the transcript as "biometric hipleo dot gov"). The award recognizes law enforcement use of biometric tools such as NGI to help solve major cases.
The San Diego Police Department received the 2021 Biometric Identification Award for its role in the investigation. The FBI announcement and Johnson's account together illustrated the sequence of investigative steps—latent print recovery, database searching in NGI, follow-up DNA collection, corroborating documentary evidence and prosecution—that led from a cold case to a conviction.
