http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/12/us/old-evidence-resurfaces-unsettling-82-murder-case.html

Old Evidence Resurfaces, Unsettling '82 Murder Case

A grisly crime shocked this small town nearly 19 years ago. A 75-year-old widow, Dorothy Ely Edwards, who grew up riding horses, studied music in college and took up painting in her 50's, was raped and murdered, stabbed 52 times, her body, clothed only in her robe, dumped in her bedroom closet. It took the police only a few days to arrest a suspect -- Edward Lee Elmore, 23, one of 11 children, who had grown up in poverty, dropped out of school in the fifth grade and washed the windows at Mrs. Edwards's house a couple of weeks before she was murdered.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Carolina-Man-Faces-3rd-Trial-in-Vile-Killing-of-2720394.php

Carolina Man Faces 3rd Trial in Vile Killing of Elderly Widow / Verdict may turn on long-lost hairs found on victim

Carolina Man Faces 3rd Trial in Vile Killing of Elderly Widow / Verdict may turn on long-lost hairs found on victim A 75-year-old widow, Dorothy Ely Edwards, who grew up riding horses, studied music in college and took up painting in her 50s, was raped and murdered. 23, one of 11 children, who grew up in poverty, dropped out of school in the fifth grade and had washed the windows at Edwards' house on a wooded lot on Melrose Terrace a couple of weeks before she was slain. The chief forensic investigator had said repeatedly over the years that the hair samples had been lost; two years ago, under pressure from the defendant's lawyers and the state attorney general, he found them in his file cabinet, where they had probably been all the time, a lawyer with the attorney general's office said in a deposition last month. For all its local elements, the Elmore case has characteristics typical of many capital cases around the country, said John Blume, a veteran death penalty defense lawyer in Columbia, who has worked on Elmore's appeal. Elmore's lawyers were entitled to be paid no more than the state-established fee of $1,500 and did not call any forensic experts to counter the state's case. In January 1982, someone entered Edwards' home through the kitchen door, off the carport, presumably somebody she knew, the police concluded, because there was no evidence of a forced entry. Holloway told the police, according to their report, that when he noticed the rear screen door open, he went in, saw a denture piece, a pair of needle-nose pliers and some blood on the kitchen floor, and went to Edwards' bedroom, where he saw blood on the walls. [...] when they issued the arrest warrant, they also had the medical examiner's findings that she had found a black person's pubic hair on the victim's abdomen, the prosecutor said at the time. The only direct evidence linking Elmore to the crime was the testimony of a jailhouse informant, James Gilliam. Gilliam, who was in jail for a probation violation, from a conviction for theft, testified that Elmore told him that he had killed Edwards because she started screaming, and that he had wiped his fingerprints.