The Elmira Police Department has announced the closure of one of the city’s oldest unsolved cases, the 1964 homicide of 12-year-old Mary Theresa Simpson.
Simpson was killed on March 15, 1964, and her death remained unresolved for more than six decades.
Police on Wednesday said the case was reopened in late 2024, when Elmira Police Sergeant William Goodwin partnered with Russell Sage College and the FBI to apply modern investigative tools and technology. Using advances in DNA testing and investigative genetic genealogy, authorities were able to identify Alfred Murray as the person responsible for Simpson’s death. Murray died in 2004.
Investigators say the breakthrough brings long-awaited answers to Simpson’s family and officially closes the decades-old case.
A press conference announcing the development included representatives from Russell Sage College and the FBI, along with retired Elmira police officers who worked the investigation over the years and surviving members of Simpson’s family.
