The Ray Hagy conviction is a big win for Roanoke City Police.
Their effort should be commended—- starting with their efforts back in 1984.
While the Audrey West murder has garnered way more attention than the Cindy McCray murder, it was McCray’s case police first set to a lab for new DNA testing back in 2007.
Investigators kept the McCray evidence sealed and logged in a safe place for all those years.
Then Detective Len Manning doggedly pursued the case from the time opened the file to the time he handed off all the evidence to prosecutors.
It’s almost as if police knew back in 1984 that if they held on to this evidence long enough, science would eventually catch up and tell them whom that DNA belonged to.
I’ve covered many murder trials in my career but it’s very rare these cold cases make it to court.
The city of Roanoke alone has more than 40 unsolved murders.
It just goes to show the excellent effort and resources Roanoke police put into this case.
Posted by Scott Leamon at 05:50 PM. Filed under: leamon •
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