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cold case

Image of LASD Leutenant standing at a podium with a flyer that reads Case Solved.
Sheriff and Homicide Detectives announce a Solved Cold Case from the 1980s 1024 819 SIB Staff

Sheriff and Homicide Detectives announce a Solved Cold Case from the 1980s

Sheriff Alex Villanueva and Homicide Detectives announce a Solved Cold Case from the 1980’s

On Sunday, October 13, 1985, Victim David R. Evans was brutally beaten to death inside his residence in Claremont, CA. His body was discovered by Claremont Police Officers when neighbors called to report a possible burglary. At the time of the murder, the 57-year-old victim was the Vice President at Pomona First Federal Bank and former Pomona Unified School District Superintendent. David was divorced and lived by himself. In 1985, the investigation had few leads, and no suspects were identified. 

In 2006, advancements in forensic technology prompted investigators to re-analyze evidence discovered at the scene of the crime. The analysis led to the identification of Hillery Marcus Dupleasis as a person of interest. Over the next several years, the ongoing investigation failed to further implicate Dupleasis to the case. Investigators were also unable to establish that Dupleasis resided in California at the time of the crime.

In 2020, Detectives Shaun McCarthy and Bill Marsh re-investigated the case with the help of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Scientific Services Bureau and they were able to link Dupleasis, a person of interest identified in 2006, as the suspect in the murder of David Evans. 

Investigators were able to definitively determine Dupleasis lived in the San Gabriel Valley during the time of the murder and were also able to link Dupleases to the Victim’s 1980 Chevrolet Monza that was stolen immediately after his murder and abandoned in Covina, approximately two hours later.

Dupleasis is currently incarcerated in a New York State Prison, serving an extensive sentence for an unrelated murder. He will be eligible for parole in that case, in 2033.

On May 2, 2022, 1stdegree murder charges were filed against Dupleasis by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

The 36-year-old cold case murder was solved by detectives assigned to the Homicide Bureau’s Unsolved Unit. Detectives worked closely with investigators from the Claremont Police Department, New York State Police, and the New York Department of Corrections.

It is never too late to provide information that will assist detectives solve a case. If someone knows something about a crime, please contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. They can also provide information anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS (8477) or use their smartphone by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile App on Google Play or the Apple App Store, or use the website http://lacrimestoppers.org/.

Image of Victim, David Evans
Image of suspect Hillery Marcus Dupleasis

Press Conference Video

DEFUNDED HOMICIDE DETECTIVE CAUGHT THE KILLER FROM 1996 MURDER. 920 696 SIB Staff

DEFUNDED HOMICIDE DETECTIVE CAUGHT THE KILLER FROM 1996 MURDER.

After the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles County CEO defunded Detective Division, LASD Homicide Bureau’s cold-case detective Purcell worked for free to catch the 1996 killer of Covina grandmother in a nursing home. Detective Purcell was one of the first detectives on the scene on January 19, 1996. Mary Lindgren, 67, had been brutally beaten, raped, and murdered at a retirement home in Covina. Click on the link below to view the full story.

https://bit.ly/3fIJ2RD

LASD Homicide – Unsolved Unit Solves 24 Year Old Case 1011 1024 SIB Staff

LASD Homicide – Unsolved Unit Solves 24 Year Old Case

LASD Homicide – Unsolved Unit Solves 24 Year Old Rape/Murder Case of a 67-Year-Old Female Victim

On January 19, 1996, Mary Lindgren was discovered brutally beaten, raped, and murdered inside her 1ST-floor bedroom at the “Covina Villa Retirement Home,” an assisted living center for senior citizens. Mary Lindgren lived alone in her room and was discovered by facility staff at approximately 7:30 am. Rescue personnel responded to the location and pronounced Mary Lindgren dead at the scene. Mary Lindgren was 67 years old at the time of her murder.

Homicide investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene and assisted the Covina Police Department with the murder investigation. Sheriff’s Homicide investigators, along with a Department crime lab scientist and forensic identification specialist, conducted a thorough and exhaustive crime scene investigation. Several items of evidence, including DNA, were collected and held for forensic analysis. Investigators conducted extensive interviews with facility staff members, residents, and their families, outside vendors, contractors, delivery personnel, as well as neighbors living near and around the facility. All were cleared and excluded as potential suspects in this case.

DNA evidence, believed to belong to the suspect, was recovered from the crime scene and analyzed by the forensic biology section of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Crime Lab. Although the suspect DNA profile was developed, the unidentified male offender’s DNA profile did not match any profiles within the state or federal criminal justice DNA databases.

Homicide investigators, in this case, initiated state and national crime broadcasts to participating law enforcement agencies, detailing Mary Lindgren’s murder. Throughout the years, investigators continued to send out the crime broadcasts, which resulted in several leads of possible suspects connected with similar criminal behavior. All leads were thoroughly investigated by Homicide investigators but failed to lead to a suspect in Mary Lindgren’s murder.

In 2019, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office collaborated with LASD Homicide Investigators assigned to the Unsolved Unit, to submit the unidentified offender’s DNA profile to the California State Department of Justice a state-of-the-art DNA search and identification process. In July of 2020, California Department of Justice officials notified investigators from the Sheriff’s Homicide Unsolved Unit and the District Attorney’s Office of their results. Utilizing the results provided by the California Department of Justice, detectives focused their investigation on the probable suspect. Subsequently, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Investigators assigned to the Unsolved Unit, along with Sheriff’s Crime Lab personnel, identified David Adolph Bernal, a 46-year-old El Monte resident. His DNA was a match collected from the body of Mary Lindgren and was the suspect in her murder. On August 6, 2020, members of the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau served an arrest and search warrant for David Bernal in the city of El Monte and arrested him for the 1996 murder of Mary Lindgren.

Bernal is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday, August 7, 2020, in the Los Angeles Superior Court. His bail was set at $2 Million.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.

If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call “Crime Stoppers” by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), use your smartphone by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile APP on Google play or the Apple App Store or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org/