Pamela Maurer Cold Case: Killer Identified in 1976 Murder of Downers Grove South H.S. Student
Murderer Identified in 1976 Murder of Pamela Maurer
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert B. Berlin announced today that the 1976 murder of sixteen-year-old Pamela Maurer has been solved. In his announcement, Berlin named then twenty-three-year-old now deceased Bruce Lindahl, who resided at 1023 Solfisburg, Aurora at the time, as the man responsible for Pam’s murder. Pam’s body was discovered at approximately 7:30 a.m., forty-four years ago today in the snow on the side of College Road in Lisle. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
On the night of January 12, 1976 between 9:30 and 10 p.m., Pam Maurer left a friend’s house and walked to a nearby location to get a soft drink. The next morning, a road crew discovered Pam’s body on the side of the road. The investigation found that Pam had been sexually assaulted and that her murder occurred within a very short time of leaving her friend’s home. Pam’s murder was thoroughly investigated by the Lisle and Woodridge Police Departments, including collecting biological evidence from Pam’s body. Despite their efforts, the case went cold. In 2001, that evidence was analyzed at the DuPage County Sheriff’s Crime Laboratory and a DNA profile of her suspected killer was identified. That profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) but no hits were ever generated. In 2019, additional advanced DNA testing and analysis was conducted on the forensic evidence by Parabon Nanolabs at the request of the Lisle Police Department and the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office. This testing resulted in the creation of a “Snapshot” prediction for traits such as the suspect’s eye color, hair color, skin color, and face shape and a composite that provided an approximation of the appearance of the unknown subject.
Additional Genetic Genealogy analysis was conducted through which authorities identified Lindahl as a person of interest. Lindahl was deceased at this time having succumbed to apparent accidental, self-inflicted injuries he sustained in the 1981 stabbing murder of eighteen-year-old Charles Huber of Naperville. In November 2019, with the cooperation of the DuPage County Coroner’s Office, the Lisle Police Department, the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office and members of the State’s Attorney’s Investigations Division, Lindahl’s body was exhumed and specimens from his remains were collected to obtain possible DNA for comparison to the DNA collected from Pam’s body in 1976. Both the DuPage County Sheriff’s Crime Laboratory and DNA Labs International were successful in extracting and profiling DNA from the remains of Lindahl which confirmed that the DNA evidence recovered from Pam’s body was consistent with Lindahl’s DNA profile. The chance that a person at random would be included as a contributor is 1 in 1.8 quadrillion individuals.
“More than four decades have passed since Pam Maurer was brutally murdered and sexually assaulted,” Berlin said. “During that time however, dozens of law enforcement personnel from multiple jurisdictions have kept her in their hearts and it is because of their diligence, commitment and compassion we are here today. I would like to personally thank each and every person who worked on this case the past forty-four years for their commitment to justice and the memory of Pam Maurer. I would particularly like to acknowledge and commend the efforts and dedication of the Lisle and Woodridge Police Departments, especially Detective Chris Loudon from Lisle, the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office and Crime Laboratory, the DuPage County Coroner’s Office, Parabon, DNA Labs International and investigators from my Office. I would also like to say that as a result of this investigation, Bruce Lindahl’s DNA profile is now being used to investigate unsolved cases that may be solved as a result of the break in the Maurer case. I urge anyone with any information about Bruce Lindahl, any crimes involving Bruce Lindahl or any possible victims of Bruce Lindahl to please contact us via our tip line at 630-407-8107 or Detective Chris Loudon of the Lisle Police Department at 630-271-4252.”
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