Overview
- Police arrested 56-year-old Gary Len Ross on Friday after a DNA profile from blood collected at the 1993 scene matched an entry in the national CODIS database under the name Tommy Lynn Jones.
- The victim, 55-year-old Tommie Davis, was found inside her Haskell Avenue home in May 1993 with blunt-force injuries from a board and stab wounds.
- Detective Andrea Isom reopened the cold case, submitted preserved evidence for modern testing, and secured the forensic results that produced the database match.
- Ross is charged with capital murder and is being held at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center while the Dallas Police Department’s CAPERS unit continues the active investigation and asks the public for tips.
- CODIS is a national law-enforcement DNA index that can link old evidence to people listed under real names or aliases, a tool that investigators say can reopen cold cases and move them toward prosecution and possible closure for victims’ families.