Discarded Chewing Gum Leads to Breakthrough in Decades-Old Cold-Case Murder
In a shocking turn of events, a discarded piece of chewing gum casually spit on the ground in 2021 has led to the resolution of a cold-case murder that had baffled authorities in Oregon for over four decades.
The case involved the brutal murder of college student Barbara Mae Tucker, who was just 19 years old when she was killed on the Mount Hood Community College campus in 1980. Despite years of investigation, the authorities were unable to identify a suspect or make an arrest in the case.
However, a breakthrough finally came in 2021 when Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA-based forensics company, identified Robert Arthur Plympton as a “likely contributor” to a DNA profile developed from swabs taken from Tucker’s body in 2000. Plympton, now 60 years old, was under police surveillance and eventually found guilty of Tucker’s murder after a three-week bench trial in Portland.
The key piece of evidence that ultimately led to Plympton’s conviction was a piece of chewing gum that he casually spit on the ground. Detectives collected the gum and submitted it to a state police crime lab, where it was determined that the DNA profile from the gum matched the DNA profile from Tucker’s vaginal swabs.
Plympton, who had a criminal record including a conviction for second-degree kidnapping in 1985, was arrested in June 2021 as he was driving away from his home in Troutdale, Oregon. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and multiple counts of second-degree murder in connection with Tucker’s death.
As the verdict was announced, members of Tucker’s family wept and embraced, finally finding closure after decades of uncertainty. Tucker’s older sister, Alice Juan, expressed relief that the case had finally been solved, remembering her sister as a bright, bubbly, and caring individual.
Plympton is scheduled to be sentenced on June 21 and faces a potential life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years for the first-degree murder charge. Despite Plympton’s lawyer’s claims of reasonable doubt, the judge was firm in her conviction that Plympton was responsible for Tucker’s death.
The resolution of this long-standing cold case serves as a reminder of the importance of forensic technology and perseverance in seeking justice for victims and their families.
