Suspect killed by police in shootout has now been linked by DNA to 1981 cold-case murder Debra Lee Miller, 18, was found murdered in her Ohio apartment on April 29, 1981.
Vanest, who was 25 years old and living in the same apartment building as Miller at the time of the killing, had been questioned during the initial investigation but was never identified as a suspect.
Vanest was interviewed again in 2021, where he admitted that he lied to investigators about the story he previously told them about chasing a homeless man away from Miller’s door on the night of her murder.
A decades-old cold case murder has been solved after the killer was fatally shot by police in a shootout at an Ohio motel last month.
For 43 years, the murder of Debra Miller haunted the town of Mansfield.
