DNA proves a long-dead man attacked 3 girls in Indiana nearly 50 years ago, police say

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Police say a man who died in prison decades ago has been identified through DNA as the attacker who abducted and physically attacked three Indiana girls in 1975 and left them in a cornfield. The 11-, 13- and 14-year-old girls survived the attack, but the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said “a clear suspect” was never found. On Thursday, the department announced that investigators had used “forensic genetic genealogy” to identify the attacker as Thomas Edward Williams, who died at age 49 in November 1983 in a Galveston, Texas, prison. Deputy police chief Kendale Adams praised investigators, saying their announcement was “nearly 50 years in the making.”