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April 5 (UPI) -- The man believed to be responsible for murdering three women in the late 1980s and assaulting a fourth on the second day of 1990 has been identified, police said Tuesday. A joint police task force publicly identified Harry Edward Greenwell as the man dubbed the "I-65 killer" after the series of attacks at hotels in Kentucky and Indiana.
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Referred to as the Days In murders, Greenwell robbed and murdered three young women, and left a fourth for dead, in a series of attacks that began in February 1987 and culminated in the final assault in January 1990.
Greenwell, who died in 2013 at age 68 in New Albin, Iowa, had an extensive criminal history from 1963 to 1998.
More than 30 years after the attacks, Greenwell was identified using investigative genealogy.
The technique involves uploading a crime scene DNA profile to one or more genetic genealogy databases in an attempt to identify a criminal offender's genetic relatives and locate the offender within their family tree.
This can generate new leads for unsolved crimes, as well as help identify unknown victims.
The process matched Greenwell's crime scene profile with a close family member. The probability of Greenwell being the person responsible for the attacks was more than 99%, police said.
Police said Tuesday they had preserved DNA evidence and ballistic evidence from all three cases.
On Feb. 21, 1987, Vicki Heath was murdered at the Super 8 Motel in Elizabethtown, Ky. She was sexually assaulted before being shot in the head.
More than two years later, on March 3, 1989, Margaret "Peggy" Gill was killed while working the night shift at a Days Inn in Merrillville, Ind.
Jeanne Gilbert was killed while working a night shift at a Days Inn, this time in Remington, Ind.
"Our family is extremely grateful to all of the agencies, along with agency partnerships, who have committed to keeping these unsolved cases at the forefront for more than 33 years, and who have worked tirelessly to bring these cases to resolution for all who have suffered from these crimes," said Jeanne Gilbert's daughter, Kimberly Wright.
A fourth woman was sexually assaulted on Jan. 2, 1990 at the Days Inn in Columbus, Ind.
"Indiana State Police investigators work diligently every day, in close collaboration with our state and federal law enforcement partners all across Indiana and beyond our state lines, to help solve senseless crimes like this one, no matter how many days, months or even years have passed since the crime occurred,, Indiana State Police Superintendent Douglas G. Carter said.
