For more than a decade a cold-case murder went unsolved. Then police tested the cigarette at the scene for DNA
‘My family is very blessed that this day has finally come,’ the victim’s daughter said after the charges were announced
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Thirteen years after a man was killed in Masontown, Pennsylvania, police have finally charged the suspected murderer.
A “pristine” cigarette found at the crime scene led to the arrest of Frank Timothy Campbell Jr, 38, who was charged on Wednesday with the August 2011 murder of 35-year-old Leon Mickens, according to Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele.
Mickens was fatally shot more than a decade ago — but no one had ever been charged in connection to his murder.
The cigarette was found “within a couple inches to a foot to the initial blood splatter,” the DA told the Herald-Standard.
Court records show he faces counts of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
Aubele announced the break in the cold case on July 3, explaining that a combination of a witness’s identification and DNA evidence led to the arrest.
Campbell had been a suspect in the cold case since the murder 13 years ago, but the DNA evidence on the cigarette sealed the deal, Aubele told the outlet: “It puts him right there.”
After Campbell was charged, Destiny Mickens, the victim’s daughter, told CBS News: “I feel a lot of emotions now.” She added: “I’m very blessed, my family is very blessed that this day has finally come.”
A preliminary hearing has not yet been scheduled, online records show, but he is currently in state prison on unrelated charges.