Investigators used familial DNA to nab suspect in Cleveland woman’s 2018 slaying - cleveland.com

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Investigators used familial DNA to identify the man accused of beating a woman to death and stuffing her body in a church stairwell in 2018, according to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office.

A grand jury on Monday indicted 26-year-old Jamal Kukla on charges including aggravated murder, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse in the September 2018 killing of Jasmine Washington.

Kukla is in the Cuyahoga County Jail on $1 million bond. He is set to appear for a Thursday arraignment.

Police arrested Kukla in May after disclosing in court records that they had obtained his DNA through surreptitious means and matched it to DNA collected from the scene of Washington’s death.

O’Malley’s office said in a Monday news release that a task force made up of Cleveland police homicide detectives and FBI agents identified Kukla by using a tool maintained by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation to find potential family members of suspects by comparing crime scene DNA to DNA that is already in a law enforcement database.

The process identified potential relatives of the person who left the DNA at the scene, and investigators eventually settled on Kukla as a suspect, the release said. Cleveland police and FBI agents arrested Kukla on May 27 after testing matched his DNA to that collected at the scene of Washington’s killing, prosecutors said.

“This horrendous crime has left the victim’s family suffering with numerous questions for nearly two years,” O’Malley said in the release. “Thanks to the coordinated efforts of law enforcement agencies at every level, hopefully some of those questions will soon be answered.

“More and more, familial analysis positively links DNA evidence from a crime scene to a suspect, providing investigators with leads that crack a case,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in the release.

A maintenance worker at Broadway Christian Church on Engel Avenue in the city’s North Broadway neighborhood went to the building after a neighboring business complained about a foul odor, according to police reports. The worker looked under a staircase and found a foot, police reports say.

He called 911, and police discovered Washington’s decomposed body with head trauma, according to police.

Homicide investigators estimated that she had been dead about seven to 10 days before she was found. It took the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner about three weeks to identify Washington and ruled her death a homicide by blunt force trauma to the head and face.