The murder of Jody Loomis
Bothell, Snohomish County, Washington · 1972
Overview
On August 23, 1972, 20-year-old Jody Loomis left her Bothell, Washington home on a bicycle to visit her horse at a nearby stable and was sexually assaulted and fatally shot in the head in the woods of Snohomish County. The case, the county's oldest unsolved murder, went cold for decades until investigative genetic genealogy on semen recovered from her boot identified Terrence Miller, who was arrested in 2019. Miller died by suicide on November 9, 2020, hours before a jury convicted him of first-degree murder.
How it was solved
In 2008 a Washington State Patrol crime-lab technician reviewing the cold case found microscopic sperm on a hiking boot Loomis had borrowed from her sister, yielding a suspect DNA profile. In 2018 detectives sent that profile to Parabon NanoLabs, whose genealogist Deb Stone built a family tree using the public site GEDmatch, spending roughly 57 hours narrowing the lead to Terrence Miller. Investigators then trailed Miller to the Tulalip Resort Casino, recovered a coffee cup he discarded, and matched its DNA to the semen on the boot.
Sources
- Suspect in 1972 murder kills himself; jury finds him guilty
“An Edmonds man on trial for the 1972 killing of Jody Loomis died in an apparent suicide ... Three hours later, the jury found him guilty.”
- Jody Loomis murder: Genetic genealogy, discarded coffee cup leads to Terrence Miller's arrest in county's oldest cold case
“an 18-year-old girl and her friend found Loomis near death in a heavily wooded area. She had been sexually assaulted and shot in the head.”
- Terrence Miller Dies By Suicide Before Cold Case Conviction
“Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed that Miller died from a gunshot wound. The death was ruled a suicide.”
- DNA strikes again: Edmonds man, 77, arrested in 1972 killing of Bothell woman
“Jody Loomis left her Bothell home on a white 10-speed bike to see her horse at a stable.”
- DNA on a boot leads to arrest in 1972 murder of Jody Loomis
“Parabon extracted the DNA from the sample on Loomis' boot last summer ... It took 57 hours of digging through online family trees, court papers and other public records.”