ST. LOUIS Rodney Lincoln has spent half his life in prison and knows he will spend the rest there, too, unless a sealed Federal Express container en route to Lorton, Va., can unlock his cell.

Inside: A swab of red stain from the front edge of a kitchen sink. A piece of aluminum door frame with a bloody fingerprint. A steak knife and butcher knife, both with blood. A broom. And a piece of tissue paper left near a doorway where the killer fled.

Those are among the physical evidence stored for decades from the gruesome murder of JoAnn Tate and attack on her two young daughters at their St. Louis apartment on April 27, 1982.

Now, with the state's blessing, the evidence will be tested by Bode Technology, in the suburbs of Washington. It specializes in DNA comparisons, science not available at the time of the crime.

The Midwest Innocence Project is paying for the testing, believing the results will not only free Lincoln whose case they've been fighting for years but also point to a particular man it suspects of being the real killer.

Tate's family, however, hopes the tests will put a final stamp on Lincoln's conviction and provide closure.

A GRUESOME CRIME

Police who responded on that spring morning to Tate's apartment on Farrar Street encountered a gory scene.

Tate, 35, was facedown in a pool of blood, fatally stabbed in the chest and sexually assaulted with a broom. The killer delivered 10 stab wounds to Tate's daughter, Melissa, 7, and sliced the throat of Renee, 4.

Melissa feebly told relatives who found them, "Bill did it."

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DNA testing keeps convicted killer's hopes alive