New DNA testing helps identify suspect in 1974 Missoula murder

(KPAX) Investigators have solved a 46-year-old cold case that shocked the Missoula community and left a 5-year-old dead, her body abandoned in a drain culvert near the Turah exit.

Siobhan McGuinness was reported missing from her northside home on Feb. 5, 1974, and two days later her body was found off of Interstate 90.

The murder puzzled investigators for more than four decades until an advancement in DNA technology allowed for evidence to be retested. Along with the help from national agencies, it led investigators to Arkansas native Richard William Davis.

At a press conference on Monday, officials said Davis was just passing through Missoula in 1974 and said he died in 2012. Siobhan’s family said they are thankful for all of the investigators' efforts over the past 46 years.

"We are just completely overwhelmed by the science, the dedication and the hard work that has gone on and everything that you have done," Sioban's half-sister Oona said.

"Forty-six years is a very long space in time to be in a state of unending grief and immense sorrow for one as beautiful and as amazing as Siobhan," her father Stephen said.

Law enforcement said that because Davis died before he could be interviewed about the case, no motive for the killing is known.

David Mittelman is the CEO of Othram Inc. The company was able to complete low-quality DNA samples, which made the identification possible.

Mittelman added that Othram recently helped identify the suspect in the 1974 murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker from Texas.