DNA samples were pulled from a cigarette butt found in the home where a federal judge’s mother and husband were shot to death, but tests did not match any known criminal profile in the United States, according to published report.
The genetic material, tested at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., also did not match any members of Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow’s family, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing unnamed sources, in Tuesday’s editions.
More than 2.27 million genetic profiles are available for matching in the national database, FBI officials said last week.
Investigators have called the cigarette butt a key piece of evidence because it was found inside the home in the kitchen sink. The bodies of Michael Lefkow, 64, and Donna Humphrey, 89, of Denver, were found in the basement.
Other evidence
Investigators have gathered several other pieces of evidence from the North Side Chicago home and neighborhood, including a broken window with a fingerprint and a bloody footprint. Other cigarette butts and a soda can were found near the home in the area where a witness reported seeing a car parked.
Authorities have received more than 600 tips about the Feb. 28 slayings, according to the Chicago Police Department, and last Friday the FBI announced a $50,000 reward.
Meanwhile, several people linked to white supremacist Matthew Hale, who is awaiting sentencing for soliciting an FBI informant to kill Judge Lefkow, said they have been questioned by detectives and the FBI about the slayings.
A man recently released from a Florida prison said Monday he told investigators it was possible that members of a small faction related to Hale’s group may be behind the slayings.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if somebody did take it upon themselves to do this,” Jerald Overturf, who said he is head of prison ministries for Hale’s organization, told the Tribune. “They might think they’d get some brownie points later. I think it’s disgusting. It’s not what the church was supposed to be about.”
Interviews continue
Other people who have been interviewed by investigators include a Ku Klux Klan leader who hosted Hale at rallies on his Indiana farm and a former Hale associate who left Chicago on a one-way ticket for Las Vegas last week.
Matthew Hale has denied any involvement in the slayings, or of soliciting the judge’s murder.
On Monday night, about 200 people gathered outside the Lefkows’ home to pray for the family during a candlelight vigil.
“We came here because this is a symbol of everything that is good,” resident Thomas Green said. “And what happened last week symbolized everything that is bad.”
