Fast forward to today, with the advances in DNA technology, the case has finally been solved. Using DNA testing and genetic genealogy, police are closing the 1971 cold case murder.
The police worked with Parabon NanoLabs, a genetic genealogy firm, to search publicly for clues about the killer’s identity.
Within a few hours, they were able to narrow the list of potential suspects to William DeRoos, also known as “Dutch.” He lived in the same building where Curran lived.
The suspect becomes a Buddhist monk in Thailand
After interviewing DeRoos’s then-wife, Michelle, detectives discovered that on the night of the murder, the couple had gotten into a fight. DeRoos left home and returned after his wife was asleep. He told her to tell authorities that they had been home all night. Michelle was unaware of the murder in the building and kept her husband’s alibi.
After the murder, DeRoos left his wife and moved to Thailand to become a Buddhist monk. He returned to the United States in 1974 and settled in San Francisco, where he married another woman.
