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SEATTLE, Wash. — DNA collected from a fake "chewing gum survey" has let to an arrest of a homeless man in one of Maine's oldest cold-case murders.
Gary Sanford Raub, 63, was an original suspect in the 1976 killing of 70-year-old Blanche M. Kimball in Augusta, Maine, but police had never found enough evidence for an arrest — until a Seattle detective asked Raub to take part in a fake "chewing gum survey."
DNA from the survey, which offered Raub $5 for his participation, matched DNA found in Kimball's kitchen on the night she was killed. It also matched DNA found on the handle of a knife used in oct. 2011 to stab a Seattle man, a crime for which Raub had been accused of in the past, according to the Kennebec Journal.
Kimball was found dead in her home on June 12, 1976, the victim of 23 stab wounds to the chest, two stab wounds to the abdomen and various other cuts on her head and hands. Police noted at the time that her house showed signs of a struggle, with "broken glass on the floor and blood located on the ceiling, wall, lampshades, furniture and floor," according to the Sun Journal.
Raub, who was a boarder in Kimball's home at the time, was interviewed twice by detectives, but denied involvement in the crime. He moved from Augusta within two to four years of the killing, according to police. He was caught trying to break into a house near Kimball's before he left.
"This case has been worked over for over three decades," Maine State Police spokesman Steve McCausland told the Seattle Times. "The DNA was significant in bringing the case to this point."
The false survey has been criticized by some for collecting evidence under false pretenses, but courts traditionally rule that evidence collected in a public place is not protected under the Fourth Amendment.
Raub was arrested Monday in Seattle's University district without incident, according to police. He is being held as a fugitive of justice in King County Jail on $1.5 million bail pending extradition to Maine, where he will face murder charges.
Investigators say he has a court appearance Thursday, but they do not expect to see the man in Maine in the near future.
"There's nothing definitive as to when he's going to come back to Maine," Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said.
