DNA technology solved a 2004 murder.  According to the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the defendant killed Deanna Denise Howland in June 2004 and dumped her corpse in various locations.

According to St. Louis-based KMOV Howland was 35-years-old when she went missing. Her dismembered remains were found at a Missouri rest stop the following month.

Almost 20 years later, police say they’ve discovered her murderer.

Body found in 2004 murder 

The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis announced the indictment last week.

Mike Anthony Clardy, 63, is being charged with murder in the second degree. And also, the abandonment of a corpse.

Maintenance workers Howland’s dismembered body wearing only a black bra. The remains were at the bottom of a slope at a rest stop on Interstate 70 in Warren County, Missouri. 

Her hands, legs, and head had been removed. And the body had not started decomposing. So, she had only been dead for a few hours.

The murder weapon, a knife, was also recovered near the crime scene.

Witnesses claimed that a white utility van was in the area the day before. And the body had an appendectomy scar. And had delivered a child through Cesarean section, at some time.

Howland’s hands, feet, and head were reportedly never recovered.

Howland was not identified.  Then the case went cold.

DNA science solves the case

Lt. Matt Schmutz of the Warren County Sheriff's Department began looking into cold cases. And in 2015, he approached the Madison County Illinois Sheriff's Office on Howland’s missing person case.

DNA testing was done in 2016. And it was finally discovered that the torso belonged to Howland of Alton, Illinois. 

The probable cause statement claimed that in 2019 additional DNA testing was done. And it led to the identification of  Clardy as the prime suspect in 2022. 

Finally, on January 10, 2023, police interviewed Clardy. And he confessed to the 2004 murder. He also claimed to have dismembered her body. And Clardy admitted he abandoned the victim's body parts throughout St. Louis County according to charging documents.

He told, police that he met Howland through sex work. And killed her during a “disagreement.”

Clardy is being held in Warren County Jail on a $1 million bond.

Police hold a press conference 

The victim was from Alton, Illinois. She was a mother of four. But due to her drug addiction, she lived a transient life.

Ashley Kinnear, Deanna Howland’s daughter spoke at a St. Louis press conference on January 12, 2023.

“I want to say thank you to everybody,” Kinnear said.

 “I knew she didn’t just decide to get rid of us. And, to me, to know that there are many other people that care, that believe that as well and that are interested in getting that side out – not just saying, you know, ‘she was a body part found.’ They’re also interested in who she was and how our life would have been different if we would have had a mom there to help teach us things that moms are supposed to teach kids.”