Granddaughter whose call led to arrest in cold case responds to ABC-7

ABC-7 has heard back from the granddaughter of the victim of a decades old cold case murder whose phone call helped lead to an arrest in the unsolved 1970 murder.

That phone call two years ago is what spurred El Paso Police to send old evidence from the case off for DNA testing. And what a surprise it was when 45-year-old finger nail clippings from the victim contained DNA matching that of an old suspect, leading to the arrest of a 70-year-old Mississippi man.

ABC-7 went to the EPPD evidence storage facility on Texas Street in Downtown El Paso where those finger nail clippings from victim Doris Rivers were stored all those years. DNA from those clippings, gathered by the original investigators, led to the recent arrest of Willie James Johnson in Madison County, Miss. Detectives said he was a 25-year-old Fort Bliss soldier at the time of the murder.

The brutal stabbing occurred at an apartment complex at 241 South Glenwood in South Central El Paso.

Detective Mike Aman from El Paso Police’s cold case squad has been in contact with River’s granddaughter since she made that inquiry about her grandmother back in 2013.

ShaVon Prince would not grant ABC-7 a phone interview, but she did send this email:

“When that process is concluded I will speak with you further. I am extremely pleased with the police department’s original investigation. Thank God for the original detectives and Det. Aman. I didn’t know the status of the case when I originally inquired, but as time went on I realized the level of detail that went into the initial investigation. From there it was a waiting and praying process.”

And it was those prayers and that phone call from Prince that broke this case wide open after 45 years!