KENNEWICK — Advances in DNA technology have helped police finally link a man with a history of robbery, rape and murder to the 1971 killing of a 60-year-old woman inside her Pasco home.
Detectives have long suspected Sam Pietro Evans beat and choked Ivah McDonnell with her own pajama bottoms in her home at 5008 W. Sylvester St.
But now the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that Evans, who died in Department of Corrections custody in 2016, was responsible for her murder.
McDonnell, who was single and lived alone, was found dead Dec. 2, 1971, after two co-workers found her front door pried open, the telephone cord cut and the blankets pulled off of her bed, the Tri-City Herald reported at the time.
Evans was one of 14 suspects interviewed by police, but while detectives sent evidence to be tested by the FBI, state and private labs, they were never able to link him to the murder, Franklin County Sgt. Steve Warren said.
It wasn’t until 2023 when advances in finding DNA allowed the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab to identify Evans’ saliva on the pajama bottoms, Warren told the Tri-City Herald on Friday.
Evans had a lengthy criminal history that included convictions for robbery in 1959, forgery in 1972, manslaughter in 1976 and armed sexual assault of a victim over age 65 in 1987. He was arrested again in 2010 in connection with the 1972 killing of Jackson Schley.
Schley, 58, was shot during a robbery, and his wife Daisy, 46, was kidnapped and raped. She died in 2007, the Seattle Times reported in 2010.
He pleaded guilty to the killing and was still in prison for the crime when he died at age 77. He spent about 39 years in prison across multiple states, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office said.
McDonnell had one extended family member left after 53 years, Warren said. That family member seemed relieved to finally have an answer to the death.
Evans, who was 33 at the time of the killing, met McDonnell through a mutual friend and appeared to single her out.
Deputies never found the tool used to break into McDonnell’s home or the weapon used to hit her, according to Herald archives.
