New technology leads to conviction in 1982 murder

KSDK -- Emerging DNA technology helped convince jurors to convict a Dent County man for the decades-old murder of his then-girlfriend.

According to Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, Donald Nash was found guilty of the March 1982 murder of 21-year-old Judy Spencer.

Court documents showed that Spencer and Nash got into an argument and left after it was over, got in her car and said she was going to Houston, Missouri. Spencer was found the next day in a hole behind an abandoned schoolhouse. She was found strangled to death with a shotgun wound to the neck.

Highway Patrol investigators took fingernail clippings from the scene and placed them in a sealed envelope. DNA testing was not available at the time.

Koster said the case was reopened in 2007 at the request of Spencer's family. The fingernail clippings were tested for DNA content. The victim's DNA and Nash's DNA were found. A lab expert said the quality of DNA was not caused by mere "casual contact" as a result of living together.

The trial took place in Rolla.

Judge Doug Long sentenced Nash to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years.