TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – After years of investigating a murder case gone cold, Terre Haute Police Chief Shawn Keen announced a break in the case during a press conference Monday.
DNA confirmed with 99 percent accuracy that Jeffrey Lynn Hand was the person responsible for the death of Indiana State University student Pamela Milam in September of 1972.
“This person was not anywhere in the original case file,” Chief Keen said. “I could have ran every person in the 1,100 arrests that I had pulled up, all of them. And got their DNA and it wouldn’t have made a difference. It was the genetic genealogy specifically that was able to at least help us.”
Chief Keen officially took on this case 11 years ago. In the 46 years it’s been open, there have been many leads. But the real break in the case came from forensics.
Hand was killed by police in Kokomo during a shootout outside of a shopping mall in 1978. With the suspect being long gone, Keen used a reverse paternity test to prove Hand’s guilt.
It wasn’t an easy decision to continue sending DNA from Milam’s blouse to genetic labs.
“The sample was getting smaller,” Chief Keen explained. “And maybe 2 years from now there’s a much better test. But I honestly over night I really thought about it and Ithought this was the right thing to do. I really do believe that at 46 years it’s time.”
During the press conference, Keen noted Hand’s family “went out of their way to be helpful.”
Hand had a history of violent behavior, including stalking and murder.
Milam’s sorority at Indiana State University released the following statement:
Sigma Kappa Sorority and our Gamma Gamma Chapter at Indiana State University have long mourned the violent death of our member Pamela Milam, a 1972 initiate of the Gamma Gamma Chapter, in September 1972. Today we are thankful for the renewed efforts of the Terre Haute Police Department in solving her murder. Our thoughts are with Pam’s family as this dark chapter is finally concluded. We ask that the media and others respect the family’s and chapter’s privacy at this time.
Continue to check back with WTWO/WAWV both on air and online for updates on this emerging story.
