Discarded napkin resolves murder mystery in US

Washington DC: A discarded restaurant napkin helped police officials in the US to identify a murder suspect 32 years after he committed the crime, a media report said on Saturday.

Pierce County prosecutors on Friday charged Gary Charles Hartman, 66, with first-degree murder and first-degree rape in the 1986 death of a 12-year-old girl.

Police say Michella Welch and her two younger sisters went to Puget Park, Tacoma (Washington) on March 26, 1986. About 11 am Michella rode a bicycle home to get lunch. While she was gone, the sisters went to a business to use the restroom.

When they returned, they didn't see Michella and continued to play in a gulch until they noticed the bicycle and lunch at the spot where they were supposed to meet for a picnic, the chief said.

The girls notified their baby sitter, who contacted the girls' mother. Police were called and a search began, CNN

reported.

A search dog found Michella's body that night in an isolated area in the gulch, more than a quarter mile away from the play area.