A suspect in a Michigan cold case that has persisted for almost 40 years has been apprehended by authorities. On December 17, felony murder charges were filed against 70-year-old Douglas Laming in connection with the death of Karen Umphrey in St. Clair County.
A long-dormant investigation may have finally uncovered a person of interest thanks to modern forensic procedures. New DNA evidence has connected Laming to the brutal 1982 murder of the girl. After decades of suffering without answers, the victim’s family can finally find some peace with these fresh information.
It was on November 2, 1980, in Port Huron, Michigan, that Karen Umphrey initially vanished. On the same day that her friends said they saw her leave a local party, she failed to return home. Two hunters working in the Beards Hills State Game Area in Michigan discovered her dead on November 4, according to a Times Herald article.
For decades, nobody knew who murdered Umphrey or how she got to this isolated spot. Up until this point, authorities had spent a lot of time trying to figure out how she got there or who killed her.
The St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office stated that the case was solved after police collaborated with the Michigan State Police and Othram, a forensic genetic genealogy company. The DNA evidenced by Umphrey’s garments was positively identified as belonging to Laming by the experts. Together, the new evidence and the old facts led them to the conclusion that he was probably the one who killed her.
Detention and Intervention Center in St. Clair County has Laming on their case. A probable cause hearing has been set on December 26, 2023, by the courts. Nonetheless, his release before his trial is highly improbable in light of the evidence and the fact that he is suspected of criminal murder. But until a court of law finds him guilty, Laming is innocent.
