Helene Pruszynski, back right, with her brother, Chet, her grandmother Julia, and her sister, Janet, in 1978. Pruszynski was killed in January 1980. Photo / Supplied
Helene Pruszynski, back right, with her brother, Chet, her grandmother Julia, and her sister, Janet, in 1978. Pruszynski was killed in January 1980. Photo / Supplied
A Colorado sheriff announced an arrest in the 1980 homicide of Helene Pruszynski, 21, who had been an intern at a Denver radio station.
For nearly 40 years, the murder of a college student, Helene Pruszynski, stumped Colorado detectives. The cold case languished for so long that all but oneof her immediate family members had died.
But then Thursday, Pruszynski's older sister, Janet Johnson, got a phone call: A prosecutor said homicide investigators had made a breakthrough thanks to advances in genetic genealogy and dogged police work.
It culminated with the Douglas County sheriff announcing Monday the arrest of a Florida truck driver, James Curtis Clanton, in the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Pruszynski, who was 21 years old.
She was a senior at Wheaton College in Massachusetts and had been returning to her aunt's home from an internship at a Denver radio station when she was stabbed to death on January 16, 1980. Her body — nude from the waist down and arms tied behind her back — was discovered the next day in a field in what is now Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
"The detectives and everyone else who helped to make this day happen are my heroes," Johnson, who is now 70, said in a phone interview Monday.
Investigators say that they were able to put together an extensive family tree of potential suspects using semen recovered from Pruszynski's body and working with forensic genealogists at United Data Connect and websites like Ancestry.com and GEDmatch.com. The DNA evidence had been preserved at the time of the murder, but the technology didn't exist. A check of a national DNA database maintained by the FBI in 1998 also didn't yield any leads.
"There's DNA that's a big part of this case, but don't misunderstand that it's like, 'Hey we just entered DNA into some voodoo database and out popped this guy,'" George Brauchler, the local district attorney, said during a news conference Monday.
In November, detectives surreptitiously collected DNA samples from the potential suspects, including Clanton, whom they tracked to Lake Butler, Florida, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The investigators first tried to collect a DNA sample from a discarded milk carton, but were unsuccessful. Next, they followed Clanton to a local bar, where they said they were able to get his DNA off a beer mug that he had been drinking from. It matched the DNA profile of Pruszynski's killer, the affidavit said.
James Curtis Clanton has been arrested in the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Helene Pruszynski, who was 21 years old. Photo / AP
Clanton, 62, was charged with first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping, the affidavit said. He was not charged with sexual assault because the statute of limitations had expired, the authorities said.
It was not clear if Clanton had a lawyer and the Douglas County public defender's officer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. The next court date for Clanton, who was known at the time of the murder as Curtis Allen White, is February 21, according to the Colorado Judicial Branch's website.
A composite sketch of Pruszynski's killer, based on an interview with a woman who saw the suspect and a vehicle where the body was found, closely resembled Clanton's booking photo when he was arrested on a domestic violence charge in Florida, the affidavit said.
Clanton had previously been imprisoned in Arkansas for rape and was working for a landscaping business in Colorado when the murder took place, according to law enforcement officials.
The Douglas County sheriff, Tony G. Spurlock, said at the news conference that more than 22 detectives spent the past year pursuing the case, which was a joint investigation with state, local and federal law enforcement partners and the group Crime Stoppers USA.
"It was kind of one of those bittersweet moments," he said. "This has been a long time."
Spurlock said it was important to remember what the case was all about: a life cut short.
"This is a young girl who was just starting her life," he said. "She wanted to be in journalism."
Brauchler, the district attorney, said it was a special moment to deliver the news to Pruszynski's sister.
"We don't rest on murder cases," he said. "The technology was an undeniable part of this case. Cases like this give me hope for the future."
Johnson, who lives in Connecticut and was nine years older than her sister, said that not a day goes by that she doesn't think about her and that she looked forward to justice being served.
"I want people to know what a special person Helene was," she said. "She was my best friend. She had a bright future ahead of her."
