American Robert Plymouth went to prison for the murder of a student.
Photo: Svetlana MAKOVEEVA
American Robert Plymouth, 60, went to prison for the murder of a student in Oregon in 1980. He was identified forty years later through DNA testing on spit-up chewing gum, which matched the samples found on the girl’s body.
Barbara Tucker, a 19-year-old student at Mount Hood Community College, disappeared on the night of January 5, 1980. Eyewitnesses said they saw a woman with a bloody face and heard screams in the distance. Barbara’s body was found in the wooded area the next morning by students heading to class. According to prosecutors, the young woman was apparently “kidnapped, sexually assaulted and beaten to death.”
Due to a lack of clues, the case remained unsolved for about forty years, but technological advances in the field of DNA studies made it possible to find the culprit. In 2000, samples taken during the autopsy of the victim were sent to the laboratory for special analysis, which made it possible to predict the “phenotype”, that is, in essence, to create a conventional sketch of the criminal from the characteristics. features of appearance. In particular, after analysis it became clear that the rapist was almost certainly a redhead. This, of course, was not enough, but in 2021 new advances in the matter appeared.
A genealogist drew attention to the profile of one Robert Plymouth and called him a “probable carrier” of similar DNA samples. Then a real special operation developed. The police placed the suspect, now 60, under surveillance and waited until he carelessly spit out his gum, not yet realizing that he was signing his own death warrant.
Police sent the suspect’s saliva gum to the laboratory. Experts’ response: The criminal’s DNA and the chewing gum samples completely match. Genealogist CC Moore, who made the discovery, would later call it “one of the highlights of my career.”
On June 8, 2021, Robert Plymouth was arrested, but despite the evidence, he denied the charges in every way possible. This did not prevent the court on March 15 from finding Plymouth guilty of the murder of Barbara Tucker. According to the lawyer, his client is going to challenge the court’s decision and until then he will remain detained.
The prosecutor, in turn, thanked the forensic experts, whose work “helped bring long-awaited justice to Ms. Tucker’s family and friends.”
