READING, Pa. — A DNA sample taken from an anonymous letter sent to a newspaper in 1990 helped investigators identify a suspect in a 43-year-old cold-case homicide in Berks County, State Police said on Thursday.
Investigators had been trying to determine who beat and strangled 26-year-old Anna Kane, of Reading, before leaving her body alongside Ontelaunee Trail Road in Perry Township on Oct. 23, 1988.
Thanks to DNA testing, State Police have identified Scott Grim, of Hamburg, as a possible suspect in the case.
Grim died of natural causes in 2018, according to investigators.
According to police, the Reading Eagle ran a front-page story about Kane's murder in 1990. In February of that year, the newspaper received an anonymous letter concerning the homicide.
The letter contained "numerous, intimate" details about the murder, according to police, and investigators believed it was written by Kane's killer.
A DNA sample from the envelope the letter was in was collected, and later tested by Parabon Nanolabs -- the same DNA testing lab that assisted in solving the cold-case murders of Lindy Sue Beichler earlier this year and Christy Mirack in 2018.
Both of those cases occurred in Lancaster County.
The testing done by Parabon Nanolabs in the Kane case determined the sample taken from the envelope matched DNA collected from Kane's clothing in 1988, police say.
Parabon Nanolabs identified Grim as a suspect, according to police.
Police later obtained a direct sample of Grim's DNA, and determined it was also a match for the sample collected from Kane's clothes, according to investigators.
Grim had previously written and mailed similar letters regarding a harassment case in 2002, according to police.
