OGDEN, Utah, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- An Idaho prisoner has pointed the finger at his deceased father after being charged with the 1983 killing and rape of an 11-year-old girl.
Gregory Seamons, serving time in an unrelated kidnapping case, was charged by Ogden, Utah, police after DNA evidence linked him to the 1983 slaying of Rebecca Lemberger. Seamons was 15 at the time and admitted in a jailhouse letter to The Salt Lake Tribune he'd had a sexual relationship with the girl. Seamons denied any involvement in the case and said his late father, whom he accused of sexually assaulting him, was likely the killer.
Seamons said on the day Lemberger disappeared his father had given the two children a ride to school. Seamons said his father, Larry Seamons, dropped him off first, leaving the father alone with Lemberger, the Tribune reported Thursday.
"I never saw this girl again and a few days later it came out on the news that she had been killed," Seamons wrote.
Nola Mahon, Lemberger's mother, said she doesn't believe Seamons' story and cites the genetic evidence as the reason.
"I think the DNA speaks for itself," she said. "Thank God for DNA."
Seamons admitted having a sexual relationship with the girl -- a charge Mahon vehemently denies, given Lemberger's age -- but said he did not kill the girl.
"Lots of kids fool around sexually but that doesn't mean one kills the other," he said. "I am innocent of this charge and angry that they plan to blame it on a 15-year-old boy."
