DNA from cigarette butt leads to murder charges in 25-year-old cold case

The suspect in a 25-year-old murder case of a Vancouver woman made his first appearance in court May 1, though the man’s defense attorney made an objection to his presentation in court, postponing the full hearing until the afternoon.

Richard Knapp, 57, of Fairview, Oregon, appeared before Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis to hear charges of first- and second-degree murder with sexual motivation stemming from the 1994 death of Audrey Hoellein. Knapp’s defense attorney objected to his client being photographed “in shackles,” asking for a hearing later that afternoon in order to handle the objection which Lewis granted.

At the afternoon hearing, Knapp’s bail was set for $1 million. He is scheduled for an arraignment hearing May 24.

Knapp was before the judge following an investigation that connected the defendant’s DNA with a genetic profile that court documents describe as “Individual A” — a profile that went without a suspect until 2018. The DNA evidence was collected at the scene of Hoellein’s death at the Family Tree Apartments in Vancouver where she was discovered July 17, 1994.

According to a probable cause affidavit for Knapp’s arrest, Vancouver police responded to the apartments that evening to discover Hoellein dead in one of the units. Evidence at the scene along with an autopsy concluded that her death was a homicide and injuries were consistent with sexual assault.

Following the creation of the “Individual A” profile, several suspects were tested against it over the course of several years though no matches were found, the affidavit stated. A news release from the Vancouver Police Department noted that the case had been assigned to its major crime unit yet remained unsolved for nearly 25 years.

A breakthrough came in 2018 when major crime unit detectives contacted a company that provides genetic genealogy to help with the case, VPD’s release stated. Through a combination of genetic analysis of the sample and more traditional genealogical methods, the company was able to provide information that led to leads on who Hoellein’s killer was.

Those leads eventually pointed to Knapp. According to the affidavit, the defendant had a previous sexual assault conviction in 1986 in Clark County to which he pled guilty. The affidavit noted similarities in that case and the evidence in Hoellein’s death. 

At the time of the 1986 conviction, Knapp provided a biological sample, though it was never uploaded to a database and was destroyed in 2000.

The affidavit stated that a new sample of Knapp’s DNA was obtained following “covert surveillance” of the defendant — a cigarette butt thrown out outside of Knapp’s work was seized and analysis from the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory showed a match with the “Individual A” profile.

Investigators also contacted a resident of the apartment complex at the time of the murder and showed the individual a 1994 photo of Knapp. The affidavit stated that resident “may have seen him around the apartment complex.”

Knapp was arrested April 28 by Vancouver police, according to VPD’s release, booked initially into the Multnomah County Jail before being extradited to Clark County.

The family of Hoellein made a statement included in VPD’s release, thanking the detectives for their work in the case.

“This crime not only took away a sister from her two brothers, it left a mother and father without a daughter, and a young child without a mother,” the statement read. It noted that after the funeral the biggest unknown that remained was who had killed their family member, adding, “We hope that the use of this technology can be used to bring closure to more families across the nation”.