By Jim Adams
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minn.)
Copyright 2006 Star Tribune
Twenty years after a Chisholm, Minn., woman was raped and strangled in her bedroom, investigators are asking for the public’s help in finding the person who killed her.
Nancy Jane Daugherty, 38, was found dead on July 16, 1986, in her home. The mother of two was an aide in a nursing home and volunteered as an emergency medical technician for the local ambulance service.
“They are working very hard with the evidence. We hope somebody will come forward with something,” said Daugherty’s daughter, Gina Haggard, who appeared withher brother and family members at a news conference Wednesday in Chisholm.
Indeed, a DNA profile derived from fluids found on Daugherty’s body has been used to clear more than 100 suspects over the years, said Chisholm Police Chief Scott Erickson. He was a patrol officer when she was slain and has worked on the case. The cold case unit of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) joined the investigation five years ago, after which a $50,000 reward was offered and is still available to anyone with information leading to a conviction.
Police believe that the DNA profile will identify the killer, who, they think, knew Daugherty and may still be in Minnesota. They also have an unidentified hand print found in Daugherty’s home that could match the killer’s. The case was complicated, Erickson said. Many fingerprints were found in the home because Daugherty hosted a high school graduation party for her daughter shortly before her death.
Daugherty was a happy woman with many friends, said Haggard, who is married with two children. “She liked the ambulance service and helping people,” she said. “She planned to go to school that summer to be a paramedic.”
Police found no signs of forced entry at Daugherty’s home, but neighborhood teenagers heard the woman quarreling in her back yard with someone about 3 a.m. the night she died, Erickson said. He said she had two friends over earlier that night and then went to a bar with one of them, a man, who brought her home at about 1 a.m.
The man, who was eliminated as a suspect, said he returned the next morning to help Daugherty pack to move to the Twin Cities for paramedic training, Erickson said. But when he arrived at about 9 a.m., the curtains were drawn and doors locked, which was unusual for Daugherty, the chief said.
After returning later to find nobody home and calling friends to find Daugherty, the man called police at about 3 p.m. Police found her strangled in her bed, Erickson said.
Anyone with information about the case can call the Chisholm Police Department at 218-254-7916 or the BCA at 651-793-7000.