Police arrested a suspect in the 1998 murder of a Washington State teenager this week, bringing a sense of closure to the more than two-decade investigation with the help of DNA testing.
Jeffrey Paul Premo, 52, was busted Monday and charged in the murder of 19-year-old Jennifer Brinkman, according to the Marysville Police Department and jail records. Premo was being held at the Snohomish County Jail on $250,000 bail for first-degree homicide.
Brinkman was found dead in her bedroom after her father and his then-girlfriend returned from vacation on March 21, 1998. She had been struck in the neck with an axe, which was recovered from the scene.
Although investigators found DNA on the weapon, outdated technology prevented them from finding a match.
But the sample was tested by Parabon NanoLabs in 2020, and the results allowed investigators to obtain a warrant for the suspect’s DNA, which he gave willingly, police said.
The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab said the accused killer’s genetic materially was ultimately matched to the DNA found on the axe.
“Solving this case has been at the top of the priority list of the Marysville Police Department for the past 24-plus years,” Police Chief Erik Scairpon said a statement Tuesday.
“We never gave up or put this on a shelf. It was continuously being investigated, with the belief that we would one day be able to bring some level of closure for the family and justice for Jennifer.”
Brinkman, who was reportedly very social, is believed to have met her killer on a phone chat line.
Early investigators found a letter the suspect wrote to Brinkman before her death that indicated the pair had met.
Premo denied ever knowing her in his initial interview with police. After he was arrested, police said, Premo invoked his constitutional rights, and cops have not revealed the motive for the crime.
“It’s one of those things where it never leaves your thought process because it continues to be unsolved,” Commander Robb Lamoureux said at a press conference Tuesday. Lamoureux was the first detective on the Brinkman murder, and still leads investigations with the Marysville PD.
“It wasn’t until yesterday when we made the arrest and I was sitting at home thinking about it that it really hit that we’ve got a conclusion to this and we’re finally able to put it on a shelf and have some closure not only for us as investigators who have been involved in it but the family and the community,” he continued.
While Brinkman’s father died in 2013, police were able to tell her mother about the breakthrough in the case.
“She was extremely emotional,” Lamoureux said. “I think it was an overwhelming emotion for her to finally have an answer.”
The Marysville Police Department did not respond to The Post’s request for a comment Wednesday.
Jennifer Brinkman’s murder is one of several cold cases that are now being aided by advanced DNA technology. Earlier this month, police in Fairfax County, Virginia announced that genetic testing identified two Maryland brothers as the rapists who attacked a 21-year-old woman in a mall parking garage in 1988.
George Thomas, Jr., 61, was arrested at a Maryland train station on Nov. 21. His brother, Gregory Allen Thomas, died in 2009.
“In this case, justice is delayed But justice is not denied,” Chief Kevin Davis said at the time.