Police obtain DNA from Harris suspect
Oklahoma City police have obtained DNA samples from Roderick Webster, who was arrested Friday in the 1989 slaying of Audrey Harris, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
On Monday, an Oklahoma County judge signed off on a search warrant so that detectives could get buccal swabs from Webster, who is being held without bail in the Oklahoma County jail.
Buccal swabs are taken from the inner cheek or mouth cavity. They were acquired from Webster sometime Monday or Tuesday.
Once the swabs are processed, Webster’s DNA will be compared to a DNA profile obtained from the crime scene more than 18 years ago.
That DNA came from froth found on Harris’ sweater, apparently left by the killer during his frantic and bestial attack. Harris, 75, was disembowelled while she was still alive.
Webster has been linked to the crime by a bloody palm print found at the crime scene. In 2003, police submitted the print to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to be run through an automated palm print comparison machine.
It wasn’t until Thursday, four days after the case was featured on the Cold Case OKC Web site, that the OSBI matched the print to Webster, a court document states.
BIG NEWS: Suspect arrested in Harris slaying
The 1989 killing of Audrey Harris, whose death was featured on Cold Case OKC on Sunday, may now be closed.
Oklahoma City police cold case detectives have arrested Roderick E. Webster, 52, of Oklahoma City. He faces a first-degree murder complaint.
For more details, read the exclusive story in The Oklahoman, on NewsOK.com or on the Cold Case OKC site.
A key piece of evidence
Detectives have had no luck tracking down the origins of a hat that Audrey Harris’ killer left behind. Can you help?
The cap is dark in color and bears the words: “Gillette Coal Mine Rescue Team.”
Police Inspector Kyle Eastridge said detectives have checked with coal mining companies in Gillette, WY, and Gillette, W. Va. — but to no avail.
Have you seen such a hat before?
Do you know which mining company issued such hats?
Do you know anyone who had one like it?
This information could be crucial.
Jack the Ripper in Oklahoma
No homicide is kind, but few are as cruel as what happened to Audrey Harris back in 1989.
Eviscerated while still alive.
No one should suffer a fate like that.
For most of the years since Harris, 75, was killed, her story has remained largely unknown. The case is familiar to some law officers, attorneys and criminology students, but the public never really learned what happened to her — at least not until now.
The Oklahoman, the state’s newspaper of record, carried three previous stories on Harris’ death. One spelled out the bare details of a breaking news story. Another briefly noted that her husband had been charged in her death. The last, and longest, was published after the charges against her husband were dropped.
For well over a decade, that was all. Few knew the horrific facts behind her death, the torture she suffered, the indignity, the nightmare. Few knew how an aging woman fell victim to one of Oklahoma’s most diabolical fiends. Harris was largely forgotten.
But not any more.
Hopefully, with wider exposure will come new leads in a case that has stymied detectives for more than 18 years. Hopefully, someone will come forward with information — even if that information points to someone who has died in the intervening years.
Now that we know Harris’ story, we need to know who killed her and why.
So forward the story to others you know. Make sure people see it. The more eyes are on it, the more likely it is that someone will remember something — anything — that could solve this case.
One of OKC’s bloodiest crimes
Coming soon:
In 1989, Audrey Harris, 75, fell prey to a ferocious attacker who disemboweled her while she still lived and flung her organs and tissue all over her Oklahoma City apartment.
Her roommate was the prime suspect until police discovered evidence that someone had broken into the house, killing Harris and beating her male roommate.
Police say there’s “substantial evidence” that could lead to the killer.
Did you know Audrey Harris? I want to hear from you.
Do you know her roommate, Lloyd Balentine? I want to find him and talk to him.
Can you help close this cold case?
