LOGAN, Utah—Police were able to quickly connect a man to the disappearance and death of a 5-year-old Utah girl using a new type of DNA test that can produce results within hours, authorities said.
Logan police used a Rapid DNA test to link Alex Whipple to the Saturday disappearance of his niece, Elizabeth “Lizzy” Shelley, KSL-TV reported.
Police had announced Tuesday that they had “strong evidence” against the 21-year-old uncle, who had been staying at his sister’s house in Logan, about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City.
After the girl was reported missing, investigators found her blood on Whipple’s watch and sweatshirt, authorities said. They also found a broken knife taken from the home with the girl’s blood.
The Rapid DNA machines allowed investigators to match the evidence within hours, leading to Whipple being charged with aggravated murder and other counts before the girl’s body had been found, said Nate Mutter, a special agent with the state attorney general’s office. The process of matching DNA normally can take weeks.
The child’s body was found in a wooded area less than a block from her home on Wednesday after Whipple gave his lawyer a map of where she was hidden. Prosecutors said they would not pursue the death penalty in exchange for the map.
The attorney general’s office has two of the machines.
The Crime
Whipple was suspected as Lizzy’s killer early on Saturday morning. Her mother, Jessica Whipple, invited her brother over to her home to play video games and drink before he left in the early morning while other family members were sleeping.
A police report stated that he had blood matching Lizzy’s DNA on his clothing when he was picked up by officials, according to the Valley Daily. He also informed police that drinking alcohol made him black out.
The search continued for a 5yr-old girl in Utah reported missing Saturday, and police have identified her uncle as the “main suspect” in her disappearance. Elizabeth Shelley, of Logan, was last seen at 2 a.m. Saturday when her mother went to bed pic.twitter.com/Nz4yrGd2y9
— Sherman (@Shermanbot) May 26, 2019
Whipple also changed his story several times before talking about the evil of the world and child abuse. “At times, Alexander would state that alcohol makes him ‘black out’ and sometimes he does ‘criminal things’ when he blacks out. Alexander would not elaborate on what these ‘criminal things’ were,” said a probable cause statement, according to the Post-Register.
Jensen added that a knife that was used in the crime was discovered in the area in the northwest corner of the Bear River Charter School parking lot, the Post-Register reported. An item of Lizzy’s clothing was found nearby.
“Approximately 50 yards due west, investigators located a teal skirt with white lace that appeared to have been hastily buried under some dirt and bark … the skirt has stains on it that are consistent with blood,” said a probable cause statement in the case. “Near the skirt was a small concrete block with blood on it.”
Whipple is slated to appear in court on Monday, June 3.
Court records said that Whipple faces one count of aggravated murder, child kidnapping, two counts of obstruction of justice, and abuse or desecration of a human body, KUTV reported.
BREAKING: Alex Whipple, the uncle of missing 5-year-old Elizabeth Shelley, was charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping, desecration of a dead human body, and obstruction of justice. Updates from police expected in 10 min.https://t.co/QnCes0l2U6 pic.twitter.com/HWlTBJfwXw
— ABC4 News (@abc4utah) May 29, 2019
Public Perception About Crime
Despite falling long-term trends in both violent crime and property crime, opinion surveys repeatedly show Americans believe that crime is up.
The vast majority of Gallup polls taken since 1993 show (pdf) that over 60 percent of Americans believe there is more crime in the United States on a national scale compared to the previous year.
Pew Research surveys show similar findings. A survey in late 2016 revealed that 57 percent of registered voters said crime in the nation as a whole increased since 2008, despite both FBI and BJS data showing double-digit drops in violent and property crimes.
Perceptions differed on a national versus local level.
Surveys of perceptions of crime levels on a local scale showed that fewer than 50 percent of respondents in every single Gallup survey (pdf) done since 1996 believed that crime in their area had risen compared to the previous year.
Epoch Times reporter Tom Ozimek, Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
