By the end of last year, Branch emerged as a new suspect, troopers said. Hoping to give the case new life, a DNA sample was uploaded to a public genealogy database in February 2019. Over the years, DNA comparisons have cleared more than 100 other potential suspects. Troopers said that while there was circumstantial evidence, no physical evidence connected the man to the case. Two days later, her body was found buried in a hollowed-out area under a fallen tree in a wooded area near the campus of the former Sheldon Jackson College, troopers said. She vanished in the early-morning hours while walking home from her sister’s residence. “While Branch will never face a jury of his peers in this case, we can finally say that Jessica’s case is solved,” Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner Amanda Price said at a news conference.īaggen disappeared on May 4, 1996, a day after her 17th birthday. A half-hour after troopers left, they said, he killed himself.Ī warrant was obtained to collect DNA at the autopsy, which came back Monday as a positive match to the sample collected at the crime scene. 3, when he denied involvement and refused to voluntarily provide a DNA sample. Troopers interviewed Branch at his Arkansas home on Aug. Watch Video: Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper and DNA: New tech solving murdersĪNCHORAGE, Alaska – A DNA match has solved the strangulation murder of a teenager in southeast Alaska, a case that was cold for 24 years and saw another man acquitted of the crime after confessing, Alaska state troopers said Tuesday.ĭNA obtained from Steve Branch, 66, of Austin, Arkansas, at an autopsy matched that of a sample left at the scene where Jessica Baggen, 17, was sexually assaulted and killed in Sitka in 1996, troopers said.