The murder of Diane Maxwell
Houston, Harris County, Texas · 1969
Overview
Diane Maxwell, a 25-year-old Southwestern Bell telephone operator and single mother, was abducted on December 14, 1969, as she arrived for work in Houston, Texas. She was forced into a nearby shack, raped, strangled, and stabbed to death; her killer fled in her Ford Mustang, which was abandoned about a mile away with the keys still in the ignition. Houston police lifted several latent fingerprints from the car but never matched them, and the case went cold for more than three decades. The victim's brother, David Maxwell, who became a Texas Ranger, pushed for the file to be reopened. On July 23, 2003, Texas Department of Public Safety latent print technician Jill Kinkade submitted the prints to the FBI's national IAFIS database; within five hours the system returned 20 candidates, and Kinkade identified the number-one candidate, James Ray Davis, a career criminal who had been released from prison just days before the murder. Confronted with the fingerprint evidence and crime-scene photographs, Davis confessed; DNA testing later confirmed he had also raped her. He was convicted of murder with malice and sentenced to life in prison on November 24, 2003, and died behind bars on June 14, 2007. The FBI later honored the investigators with its 2011 Latent Hit of the Year Award.
How it was solved
The case turned entirely on a set of latent fingerprints that sat unmatched in a Houston police file for 33 years. In 1969, investigators recovered several partial latent prints from Diane Maxwell's abandoned Ford Mustang, found about a mile from the shack where her body was discovered. With no national database and no suspect, the prints could not be identified, and the murder went cold. Diane's younger brother, David Maxwell, joined Texas law enforcement and eventually became a Texas Ranger, and he repeatedly urged authorities to take another look; the file was reviewed in the late 1980s after Houston obtained an early automated fingerprint system, but a search of local and state records produced no hit. The decisive break came when the latent prints were finally run against the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, the national database that by then held tens of millions of criminal records. On July 23, 2003, Texas Department of Public Safety latent print technician Jill Kinkade prepared the prints and submitted them to IAFIS; in less than five hours the system returned a list of 20 candidates, and Kinkade compared the latent evidence and positively identified the top candidate as James Ray Davis. Davis was a lifelong offender whose record showed that he had been released from prison only days before Diane Maxwell was killed, and that his prior crimes included the abduction of a young girl. Because Davis's prints had been lifted from the outside of the victim's car rather than from her body, investigators believed they would need a confession to secure a conviction. When detectives confronted Davis with the fingerprint identification and crime-scene photographs, he admitted to the robbery and the killing. DNA testing later confirmed that he had also raped her, though he never fully acknowledged the sexual assault. Davis was charged with murder and rape, and on November 24, 2003, nearly 34 years after the crime, he was convicted of murder with malice and sentenced to life in prison. He died in custody on June 14, 2007, having served roughly three years of that sentence. In 2011 the FBI recognized the Houston Police Department detective and the DPS latent print technician with its annual Latent Hit of the Year Award, given for an IAFIS identification that leads to a conviction in a major violent crime.
Sources
- Houston Cold Case Solved
“On July 23, 2003, Texas Department of Public Safety Latent Print Technician Jill Kinkade prepared the prints for a search of the FBI's IAFIS. In less than five hours, the system returned a response containing 20 potential matches, and Kinkade determined that the latent print evidence was a match to the number one candidate, James Ray Davis.”
- Murder of Diane Maxwell
“Davis was convicted of murder with malice; DNA evidence confirmed that he did rape her. James Ray Davis died in prison three years after being convicted, in 2007.”
- Diane Maxwell Cold Case Murder by James Ray Davis 1969
“Several partial fingerprints were recovered from Diane's abandoned red Ford Mustang, found one mile from the crime scene with keys still in the ignition. James Ray Davis had been released from prison just days before the murder for abducting a young girl, and died in prison on June 14, 2007.”
- Houston Cold Case Solved, Forensics Personnel Honored by FBI
“Twenty potential matches were returned within five hours, including a match for the number one suspect: James Ray Davis. He pled guilty, and on November 24, 2003, James Ray Davis was convicted of Diane Maxwell Jackson's rape and murder and was sentenced to life in prison.”
- Thriller Thursday: Cold Cases Solved
“On November 24, 2003, James Ray Davis was sentenced to life for the rape and murder of Diane Maxwell Jackson, driven by the reopening of the case by her brother David Maxwell, who had become a Texas Ranger.”
- Diane Maxwell: Houston Murder Solved 34 Years Later
“Latent fingerprints were lifted from Diane's car at the crime scene and filed away; in 2003 the prints were submitted to the FBI's IAFIS system, which within five hours found 20 potential matches, leading to James Ray Davis.”
- Heinous Crimes Solved by Award-Winning Forensics
“On December 14, 1969, 25-year-old phone operator Diane Maxwell was attacked on her way to her job at Southwestern Bell in Houston, raped, murdered, and dumped in an abandoned shack before her killer drove off in her Mustang; the Houston detective and DPS latent print technician were honored with the FBI's 2011 Latent Hit of the Year Award.”