He said yes to a DNA swab—and ended his life before the results came back. Arizona officials say genetic testing has tied 68-year-old Gary Wayne Billups, who died by suicide in June, to the 1987 killing of Navy veteran Orison "Jim" Chafin, whose body was found dumped in a Glendale cemetery, NBC News reports. The Korean War veteran's throat had been cut and he was wearing only socks. Chafin, 54, had been drinking at Critters Lounge that night; beer bottles and cigarette butts collected there produced male DNA profiles that sat in the federal database for decades.
A renewed cold-case push last year led investigators back to surviving witnesses, one of whom recalled Chafin and Billups clashing at the bar. Billups, who lived in Glendale in the late 1980s but was never questioned at the time, declined investigators' request to meet with them in March, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes' office said in a news release. After he was located on June 19, he voluntarily accompanied investigators to the Surprise Police Department for an interview. Billups denied knowing Chafin or living in Glendale in 1987, though arrest records placed him there at the time. He was released after he provided a DNA sample.
He died by suicide five days later, weeks before lab results tied him to the evidence. Investigators said Billups left a note that backed up their conclusion that he killed Chafin, KTVK reports. With Billups and two other persons of interest now dead, the attorney general's office and Glendale police say Chafin's case is considered closed. "Jim Chafin would have turned 95 years old this month," Mayes said. "I hope his family can take some measure of peace in knowing that he was not forgotten."
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