Cops finally solve murder after 38 years

An 18-year-old woman was found naked on a riverbed almost 40 years ago. The truth about what happened to her has finally emerged.

Police have finally solved the murder of an 18-year-old woman found naked on a riverbed after almost 40 years.

Tracy Whitney was murdered in the US state of Washington in 1988. John Guillot Jr., was identified as a suspect in her slaying only two years ago. However he had died eight months before.

Recent DNA testing finally confirmed his role in the murder, New York Post reported.

But it means the family will never see justice.

“It’s kind of an empty feeling because now we know who did it. … But we’ll never find out the true story of what actually happened,” said Tracey’s father Ronald Whitney.

Tracy Whitney was killed in August 1988 in Washington state. Picture: Pierce County Sheriff's Department

Tracy was last seen storming out of a Burger King restaurant after an argument with her friends. The next day, a fisherman stumbled upon her naked body in a gravel bed where two rivers meet.

Tracy was strangled and is believed to have been raped, officials said.

Her homicide stumped investigators for decades until new DNA evidence and genetic genealogy revealed Guillot as a suspect in 2022. But he was already dead.

“If John G. Jr. had been alive today, law enforcement would have probable cause to arrest,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Lindsay Kirkegaard said.

“From our standard, he was the suspect, and he would have been arrested for the crime.”

The victim’s nude body was found on a riverbed. Picture: Pierce County Sheriff's Department

There were no known connections between Tracy and Guillot.

Guillot was also questioned in connection to the death of his girlfriend in 2010 and the death of his wife in 2020, although he was never charged in either of those cases.

Mr Whitney told King5 News that he had been watching DNA technology advances lead to several cold cases being solved over the years, giving him hope that his daughter’s killer would eventually be found.

Ron Whitney remembers his daughter, Tracy, as a happy girl who always had a sparkle in her eye. Picture: Pierce County Sheriff's Department

“When the Golden State Killer got busted, I said, ‘This is it, this is the break that we’ve been waiting for’,” he said of the technological gains.

Learning the identity of his daughter’s killer has brought the family some closure, Mr Whitney said.

But since Guillot is dead, the family will never learn the whole story, he added.

“In my head, I imagined that we’d be going to court, and I’d be sitting in the courtroom looking him in the eyes and watching him get sentenced to death or life in prison,” Tracy’s mother, Robin Whitney, told the outlet.

The heartbroken father said the pain of his daughter’s death still haunts him.

“It’s something that never leaves your mind, every day, I don’t think the grief will ever go away,” he said.

“It’s the first thing I think about in the morning, it’s the last thing I think about at night.”

This story originally appeared on the New York Post and reproduced with permission