DNA Evidence Helps Solve 24-Year-Old Cold Case

By Dave Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Prosecutors will bring a decades-old case to trial Tuesday 24 years after a woman was killed.

Investigators tied 60-year-old Tim Forbes to the crime with DNA evidence and claim they could solve more cases with a key piece of legislation now on the governor's desk.

In the summer of 1983, police found the body of 22-year-old Tammy Gastineau near 4th Street and Broadway in downtown Oklahoma City.

Newspaper delivery man Tim Forbes was the prime suspect, but investigators couldn't prove it until 2007 when a judge's order allowed prosecutors to get a DNA sample from Forbes.

The sample matched DNA from the crime scene and Forbes was charged with First degree murder.

"That's the murder that I have no doubt would never have been solved or charges ever files except for DNA evidence," said Oklahoma County Assistant District Attorney Scott Rowland.

Gastineau's death is eerily similar to that of University of Oklahoma Student Juli Buskin, who was found dead near Lake Stanley Draper in 1996.

Eight years later, investigators matched DNA from the scene Anthony Sanchez.

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Sanchez, who had given a sample to investigators in an unrelated case was convicted for Buskin's murder in 2006. Senate Bill 1102, also known as Juli's law, would require those convicted of certain misdemeanors to turn over DNA samples to the state's database.

"This bill singles out those misdemeanors which of themselves are pretty serious or in our experience very often precursors to serious types of crimes," Rowland said.

Representative Lee Denney (R-District 33), who supports Juli's law, said Forbes' impending trial is yet another reminder of the significance of this bill.

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"This bill is so important to increase the DNA database so that maybe we can close some of those crimes and give some closure to families around the state," Representative Denney said.

Governor Brad Henry has five days to sign the bill into law. A spokesman for his office said it's being reviewed.

Tim Forbes' trial begins Tuesday.