Police Look For DNA Evidence To Connect Man To 1996 Murder Case

Oklahoma City police have obtained a search warrant to get the DNA of a man who may be connected to the 1996 murder of an aerospace engineer at Tinker Air Force Base.

Scott Penny was found dead on January 30, 1996, inside his home in the 2600 block of N.W. 121st Street. Co-workers went to check on him after he missed two days of work. He’d been stabbed multiple times in the chest and sustained blunt force trauma to the face.

Police say Penny, who was gay, would often meet strangers and bring them home. After his death, investigators found Polaroid pictures of nude and semi-nude men who were flexing their biceps. Police say Penny had a fetish for well-muscled arms.

In 2004, those photos and a DNA sample found on a cigarette butt in Penny’s garage led police to 50-year-old Dwayne Edmondson. Police say a tattoo on Edmondson’s arm matched one seen in one of the Polaroid photos. In April 2013, Edmondson was extradited from Chicago to Oklahoma City, and charged with first-degree murder in Penny’s death.

In July 2012, investigators decided to conduct more DNA testing on those cigarette butts. Nearly a year later, in May, the DNA tests connected 49-year-old Leslie George Mathis to the case. Mathis is currently incarcerated in the Oklahoma County jail on drug charges.

Investigators interviewed Mathis, who denied being involved in or having any knowledge of Penny’s death. He said he used to buy cocaine in 1996, but had no explanation as to why his DNA was found in Penny’s home.

Mathis refused to give investigators a DNA sample, so police obtained a search warrant on May 15 for it. He has not been charged in connection with Penny’s murder.