North Carolina cold case from 1968 finally solved

One of North Carolina’s oldest cold cases has finally been solved.

Authorities say they’ve identified a murder victim found burned to death in a Wake County field in 1968. Investigators shared the breakthrough this week and are crediting new technology.

“Additional DNA testing was completed and confirmed that the victim was in fact a female by the name of Myrtle Holcomb,” Wake County investigator Sgt. Kenneth Kay said.

The breakthrough allowed a piece of Holcomb’s hair to be tested.

“It’s very rare that we’re being able to do cases with hair,” said forensic genealogist Leslie Kaufman with First Genes LLC. “That’s a recent development with Astrea Forensics. This is the second case that I’ve been able to solve with forensic genetic genealogy using hair.”

That hair was one of the crucial pieces of evidence investigators had.

“The body was identified as a white female who was burnt beyond recognition,” Kay said.

With witness help, police named a suspect in 2004, Robert Reagan. They say he lived near the scene but died before being charged.

“This witness was also able to provide information saying that they had seen Reagan in possession of an identification card for a female by the name of Holcomb,” Kay said.

Despite the new info, questions remain as investigators say Holcomb traveled to Raleigh from Florida before she died.

“There’s information from the family that they knew she was traveling to this area, but they didn’t know why,” Kay said.

Investigators hope the breakthrough is closure for Holcomb’s family.

“They are just devastated by this information and trying to process everything that’s going on,” Kay said. “Her children and grandchildren were unaware of anything that had happened to her.”