After the analysis linked DeRoos to the scene, Burlington detectives interviewed DeRoos’ ex-wife again in California. They’d said they were home that night but hadn’t heard anything unusual. “It only took a few hours to narrow it down to William DeRoos,” she said by video.īoth DeRoos and his wife at the time, Michelle, had been interviewed by investigators after the murder. It helped authorities identify the notorious Golden State Killer in 2019, and has since been popularized through the ABC show, “The Genetic Detective.”ĬeCe Moore, the “genetic detective” herself, analyzed the Curran case DNA. The technique taps DNA submitted to commercial ancestry research companies to find potential matches. Last year, detectives sent DNA samples for analysis by a company using new genetic genealogy methods. DeRoos had recently moved into the top floor of her apartment house with his then-wife. “We’re so thankful for this day,” her sister, Mary Campbell, said.Ĭurran and DeRoos did not appear to have known each other, according to an investigative report released Tuesday by detective bureau commander James Trieb. The identification of DeRoos was a made-for-TV conclusion to a case that has long provoked intrigue, including a theory that Vermont-born serial killer Ted Bundy was behind the murder.Ĭurran’s family remained involved in the investigation over the decades, and published newspaper notices on the anniversaries of her death. “But there is not a cop in this building who would not happily put handcuffs on him.”ĭeRoos was linked to DNA from Curran’s torn-open coat and a cigarette butt found next to Curran's bloodied body. “Today, William DeRoos would be 83,” Murad said. If he were alive, Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George said, he’d be charged with aggravated murder. DeRoos, who left Burlington and became a Buddhist monk in Thailand, died in San Francisco in 1986 of a morphine overdose. Decades-old DNA evidence and a commercial genealogy database helped police solve the 1971 murder of Rita Curran, Burlington’s oldest cold case, authorities said Tuesday.Īn upstairs neighbor, William DeRoos, strangled the 24-year-old schoolteacher while she was alone in her Brookes Avenue apartment, Burlington acting Police Chief Jon Murad announced at a press conference, flanked by members of Curran’s family.

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