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SALT LAKE CITY - On Monday, prosecutors announced they had DNA evidence linking a man currently incarcerated in Idaho to the brutal murder of 10-year-old Anna Palmer; 11 years after her death. But many family members of the missing or murdered -- whose cases have gone cold -- never get that closure.
Ed Smart says that's why he is pushing for a change in the law. He is part of the group called "The Surviving Parents Coalition." The group wants to see a change in Utah law that it hopes would help solve more cases like Anna Palmers' and in a much more timely manner.
He says, "This is the end of a nightmare for the family -- not knowing who."
There are 17,801 known sex offenders in Utah. -Surviving Parents Coalition
On Sept. 10, 1998, 10-year-old Anna Palmer was brutally murdered. On Monday, nearly 12 years later, police announced they had linked Anna's death to Matthew John Breck. He was convicted of lewdness and sodomy on a minor in 2001, had a DNA sample collected in February of that year and has been incarcerated since.
But in 1999, he was convicted of felony burglary -- a crime he served time in prison for and a crime that DNA testing wasn't mandated for in Idaho until 2004.
The Idaho Corrections Facility where Breck is currently serving time says after it collected his sample, it turned it over to the Idaho State Crime Lab.
Smart says if authorities had collected Breck's DNA after his felony arrest in 1999, the case could have been solved much more quickly and potentially could have prevented Breck's 2001 offense of lewdness and sodomy -- protecting the underage victim.
He says, "I just think it's one of the most important things that we could do."
Civil rights attorney Brian Barnard says right now in Utah, a DNA sample is taken after a felony conviction -- not at the time of a felony arrest, which is what Smart is pushing for. Barnard says if it's taken earlier, it is an invasion of privacy.
Barnard says, "We don't maintain databases on people simply because they've been arrested. We maintain databases on people because they've been charged with crimes."
But Smart disagrees and says waiting for a conviction is too late. The samples are modern-day fingerprints and could give more families the closure they deserve.
Smart asks, "What is the issue that we're talking about here if it can eliminate a family's nightmare. It can eliminate others from being brutalized?"
Smart says the bill he is pushing for would allow samples to be expunged from CODIS, the FBI Database, if the individual is cleared of any wrongdoing.
Twenty-one states are currently collecting DNA samples for felony arrests -- Utah is not one of those.
E-mail: jstagg@ksl.com
