DNA test results have confirmed that suspected serial killer Felix Vail is not the killer of two women in Starkville’s unsolved 1990 Labor Day murders.
In a press release sent out by the Starkville Police Department, authorities confirmed the DNA evidence collected during the investigation in the 1990 slayings did not match Vail.
Vail was a suspect in the cold case where Betty Jones, 65, and Katherine Crigler, 81, were killed at Crigler’s home on 306 Mississippi Highway 82 East in Starkville. Jones died from her injuries on the scene and Crigler died from her injuries a couple months later.
Mississippi authorities obtained a searched warrant for Vail’s DNA last week after they established that he had been in Starkville at the time of the murders. Vail is in Louisiana where he is currently facing murder charges for the 1962 murder of his first wife.
Vail was ruled out as a suspect in the Labor Day murders after his DNA did not match DNA from a rape kit from the Labor Day murders.
Officials with the SPD are asking that anyone with information on the crimes contact the department at 662-323-4131, Detective William Lott at 662-418-0563 or The Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers at 1-800-530-7151.
Sarah Fowler covered crime, education and community related events for The Dispatch.
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