DNA from rock, cigarette helps solve 1995 murder

By PAUL FOY Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Utah sheriff who trailed a suspect across country for four days to grab a DNA sample from a cigarette butt says it solved the murder 18 years ago of a teenage prostitute.

Wasatch County Sheriff Todd Bonner was the original investigator in the bludgeoning death of Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch along the Provo River near Midway in 1995, and he kept at it over the years.

A Utah lab, Sorenson Forensics, recently vacuumed the suspect's full DNA from a rock used to crush the girl's skull. It matched a sample that Utah authorities already had from Joseph Michael Simpson.

But the sheriff had to obtain a fresh DNA sample. He got it from a cigarette Simpson discarded at a smoke shop in Sarasota, Fla., and the arrest was made.

Bonner says the case has haunted him for years and he was finally able to solve it with advances in DNA technology.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

A Utah sheriff traveled to Florida and helped arrest a man in an 18-year-old murder case after authorities say they used DNA from a cigarette butt to link him to the crime.

Wasatch County Sheriff Todd Bonner flew to Sarasota County, Fla., and helped take Joseph Michael Simpson, 46, into custody Tuesday.

Simpson, formerly of Clearfield, was being held on suspicion of aggravated murder in the killing of 17-year-old Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch, whose bloodied and broken body was found Dec. 6, 1995, along the Provo River near Midway.

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DNA from rock, cigarette helps solve 1995 murder