The wheels of justice can turn painfully slow

Before advances in genetic testing, if someone committed a brutal homicide, either he would avoid capture or an innocent person would end up in prison. When genetic testing came out, it freed many innocent people. Whenever I scan the latest news for true crime stories, I always look for updates on cold cases. It still amazes me when I see a killer captured 30 or 40 years after committing a heinous crime.

Some of these criminals will probably spend their last days waiting for that knock on the door from law enforcement. I am familiar with many of these cases. For instance, a college student named Kristin Smart vanished in 1996. Witnesses claimed she was last seen with a man named Paul Flores. For many years, he has been a person of interest in the case. Over two decades later, the police have charged Flores with abducting and killing Kristin.

Although the wheels of justice turn slowly, I am always ecstatic when the police take another one of these monsters off the streets.

Before Flores, many other monsters have already been removed from the streets. Unfortunately, many of them spent the prime of their lives living as free citizens. By the time they are identified, they are elderly or already deceased. So here are a few killers who were identified years after committing murder.

• John List: After killing his entire family in 1971, List fled his New Jersey home. His story appeared on America’s Most Wanted in 1989. After the broadcast, a neighbor identified him as Robert Clark. Law enforcement captured John List and then convicted him in 1990. He died in prison on March 21, 2008.

• Gerald Mason: In July 1957, two El Segundo, California officers named Richard Phillips and Milton Curtis pulled Mason over for running a red light. Mason pulled out a pistol and shot the officers to death. Mason would avoid capture for nearly 50 years. He started a family and became a successful business owner. He lived a good life until January 2003, when the police identified him by fingerprint evidence and a writing sample. He spent his final 14 years of life behind bars and died on January 22, 2017.

• Karen Klaas: She was the ex-wife of singer Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers. On January 30, 1976, someone sexually assaulted and strangled her after she returned home. She died days later at the hospital. The case remained cold until 2017 when genetic testing connected her killer to a criminal named Kenneth Troyer. However, Troyer wouldn’t face justice for killing Klaas. He was killed in 1982 while trying to escape from prison.

• Susan Galvin: An unknown man raped and strangled Galvin in a Seattle parking garage in July 1967. Galvin was last seen with a man dressed as a clown. He was found in 2016 and provided a DNA sample. Law enforcement cleared him after his DNA didn’t match the killer’s. Through Parabon NanoLabs, the unidentified DNA sample identified a man named Frank Wypych, a married military veteran who died in 1987. Law enforcement exhumed his body to collect his DNA. It matched the sample collected from Susan Galvin.

With advances in genetic testing, law enforcement agencies are getting better at capturing killers and locking them up. Unfortunately, killers have also gotten smarter. To avoid DNA, they have either disposed of the bodies to prevent DNA collection or they are committing crimes leaving no DNA behind. Regardless, a good detective will still question witnesses, confirm alibis and use other technology to capture killers. For instance, many businesses and residences are now armed with surveillance cameras. Law enforcement has successfully used video footage and traced cellphone communications to capture elusive killers. In the meantime, the vicious game of cat and mouse continues.