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DNA breakthrough leads to arrest in 1999 murder of Deborah Dalzell

Using evolving technology to analyze DNA, investigators say they have made an arrest in a decades-old murder.
Credit: Sarasota County Sheriff's Office
Detectives found Deborah Dalzell's body on March 29, 1999, at her Sarasota home when she failed to show up for work.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Sarasota County Sheriff's Office investigators say DNA evidence has cracked open a nearly 20-year-old cold case: Deputies believe they've arrested the man who killed Deborah Dalzell in 1999.

Investigators say Luke Fleming, 39, broke into Dalzell's home on Colony Meadows Lane in Sarasota, beat her, gagged her with a sock, sexually assaulted her and then strangled her with a T-shirt.

Credit: Sarasota County Sheriff's Office
Luke Fleming

News conference: DNA breakthrough leads to arrest in 1999 murder of Deborah Dalzell in Sarasota

"This is a very significant day for Deborah’s family, for our community and our detectives," Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight said in a news release. "I can’t imagine what it feels like to spend nearly twenty years with unanswered questions related to such a heinous crime."

Knight said he hopes the arrest will help the family heal.

"My thoughts are with Deborah’s family as I hope this resolution will eventually bring them the closure they need and deserve," he added.

Where was Deborah Dalzell?

Sheriff's deputies were sent to Dalzell's home on March 29, 1999, after concerned co-workers contacted them. It was past 8 a.m., and she hadn't shown up for work, said John Walsh, the captain in charge of the office's investigations bureau.

Her concerned manager drove to the house. The home was locked, car in the garage, TV still flickering a picture. Upon seeing a cut in the pool screen, the manager called for help.

The home on Colony Meadows Lane was cordoned off not long thereafter after Dalzell was found dead inside, Walsh said.

She was 47 years old at the time.

Deputies allege it was Fleming who got into Dalzell's house through an open doorway after climbing a 6-foot wall and getting through a cut in the pool screen, according to an arrest affidavit. Dalzell was found lying over the master bathtub.

Her death was ruled a homicide but for years went unsolved.

Photos: Crime scene of the 1999 murder of Deborah Dalzell

DNA evidence helps link Fleming to Dalzell

Investigators collected biological evidence -- semen left by a suspect -- from the scene and entered it into a database, but there was no immediate link.

In 2016, a breakthrough in DNA testing offered a lead in the case. The sheriff's office worked with a DNA technology company in Virginia that specializes in predicting physical appearances from unidentified DNA evidence.

Using the sample from the crime scene and by a creating a genetic profile, the company made a composite of what the killer might have looked like.

The company this year, while working with deputies, created a genealogical report from the DNA genetic profile. It found a man by the name of Joseph Fleming, who was connected to the area but died in 2001.

"Joseph had two sons connected to the Sarasota area by the names of Luke and Jesse Fleming," Walsh said. In 1999, they lived together, seven-tenths of a mile -- walking distance -- from Dalzell's home.

Jesse Fleming was a convicted felon whose DNA already was in a database. After cross-referencing that DNA, he was eliminated as a suspect.

"Through investigative means," Walsh said detectives obtained a DNA sample in September from Luke Fleming. It was analyzed on Sept. 14 and linked to the DNA found in 1999.

Late Sunday night, authorities arrested Luke Fleming in Ellenton and charged him with murder and sexual battery with great bodily harm.

Video: Luke Fleming booked in jail, accused of killing Deborah Dalzell

Dalzell's family reacts

An emotional Dalzell sister said this has been a day her entire family has been waiting for; Delzell missed years of graduations, weddings, new babies and family milestones.

"We never gave up hope," she said. "Deborah was an extraordinary and special person with a loyalty and love for her family beyond measure...We like to brag she passed the Massachusetts bar exam on her first try."

Although their mother was not at the news conference, Dalzell's sister had one more thing to add on her behalf: "We say for 20 years, [Luke Fleming] has been able to see the sun, breathe the air, smell flowers...May today be the last day."

Fleming is being held in the Sarasota County Jail on $1.2 million bond.

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