In brief: Authorities identify woman found dead
The woman found dead Friday in a Spokane Valley home has been identified as Lyndsey White, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The cause of death remains unknown pending further tests, authorities said Monday. White’s death is considered suspicious, and the matter remains an open investigation.
The 29-year-old woman was discovered after her boyfriend requested someone go check on her, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
She was found dead in her Spokane Valley home just east of Dishman-Mica Highway in the 2000 block of South Fawn Drive. Two young children were found unharmed inside. When officers arrived at the house, the woman’s 5-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son answered the door. The woman wasn’t thought to have had any significant health problems.
Ted Bundy’s DNA to enter database
MIAMI – A vial of Ted Bundy’s blood has been found in Florida and investigators will use the newly discovered evidence to try to solve cases that went cold decades ago.
Before he was executed in 1989, Bundy confessed to more than 30 murders and was suspected of many more. A complete DNA profile couldn’t be developed for the serial killer until the blood was found. The full profile will be uploaded to the FBI’s national database Friday, giving authorities key evidence to possibly link Bundy to long-unsolved crimes.
The vial was discovered after Florida authorities received a call from a detective working a cold case in Tacoma. The blood had been taken in 1978 when Bundy was arrested in the death of a 12-year-old girl in Columbia County, Fla., the News Tribune in Tacoma reported. Despite an order to destroy much of the biological evidence in the Florida case, the vial was still on file, said David Coffman, chief of forensic services at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Tallahassee crime lab.
“We were really surprised,” he said.
Coffman cautioned that it will be a challenge to find full DNA samples from so long ago, making a match unlikely. But if there is a match, authorities will know right away.
Crash in stolen car injures driver
A woman driving a stolen Honda Accord crashed into a utility pole on North Maple Street early Monday, Spokane police said.
Rachel A. Banks, 24, is facing charges of eluding police and possession of a stolen vehicle, according to the Spokane Police Department. Banks was taken by ambulance to a hospital and treated for minor cuts and abrasions.
A police officer saw the vehicle traveling fast and swerving on the Maple Street Bridge and just north of the bridge shortly after 2 a.m.
Minutes later the Honda struck a pole in front of a house at the intersection of North Maple and W. Dean Avenue. The impact nearly split the car in two, and Banks was trapped inside. The Spokane Fire Department removed her from the wreckage.
Police said the white, four-door Accord was reported stolen on July 25.