Prosecutors obtain warrant for fresh DNA in 83 slaying

Published: Friday, 9/26/2014

BY JENNIFER FEEHAN BLADE STAFF WRITER

When Andrew Gustafson was indicted last year for the 1983 slaying of a Whitehouse woman, the charges rested squarely on DNA evidence linking Mr. Gustafson to the crime.

This week, prosecutors sought to clear up any possible legal problems with the DNA sample obtained from Mr. Gustafson in 2007. The sample was taken without a search warrant in connection with an unrelated sexual assault investigation and stored for more than three years in the desk drawer of now-retired Lucas County sheriffs Detective Cathy Stooksbury.

On Monday, prosecutors sought and obtained a search warrant to get a new DNA swab from Mr. Gustafson, 57, of Birch Run, Mich., who is being held in the Lucas County jail on a $1 million bond. He is charged with alternate counts of aggravated murder and one count of murder in the death of Janean Brown, 19, whose body was found Nov. 19, 1983, in a ditch near Mr. Gustafsons home. Her throat had been cut.

We wanted to take any question about what [former Detective] Stooksbury did out of play, said J. Christopher Anderson, an assistant prosecutor assigned to Mr. Gustafsons case. We still think what she did was right and proper, but we dont want the defense to raise doubts about, Are you sure its his DNA?

Ms. Stooksbury testified at a hearing last month on Mr. Gustafsons motion to suppress the DNA evidence, saying she knew he had been a suspect in the Brown case even though he was never charged. She told the court she obtained, but never tested, his DNA in connection with a sexual assault complaint she was investigating, then kept his DNA sample in her locked desk drawer because she didnt want it to disappear.

According to an affidavit filed with Mondays search warrant application, the DNA swab collected by Ms. Stooksbury in 2007 was given to the cold-case unit in 2011 when the unit reopened the Janean Brown investigation. The 2007 DNA swab was tested as a precaution in avoidance of alerting Mr. Gustafson that the case had been reopened, the affidavit states.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation conducted the DNA testing, concluding that DNA from a vaginal swab taken from Ms. Brown was consistent with Mr. Gustafsons DNA. Testing also revealed that a Merit cigarette butt found in the ash tray of Mr. Gustafsons van in 1983 contained DNA consistent with Ms. Browns.

In two subsequent interviews with Mr. Gustafson by cold-case detectives, he still maintains he did not know Janean Brown, she was never in his van, and he has never had sexual relations with her, the affidavit states.

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Prosecutors obtain warrant for fresh DNA in 83 slaying