SAN BERNARDINO – Police may have solved a 2010 murder of an 86-year-old woman, using DNA evidence to identify a suspect.
Jerome Anthony Rogers, 58, was arrested for the December 12, 2010 murder of Wanda Lee Paulin at her home on the 5000 block of North Mt. View Ave. “Evidence in this case was extremely limited,” said Lt. Rich Lawhead, spokesman for San Bernardino police.
Lawhead said that DNA recovered was used with “hard work of San Bernardino police investigators,” leading to the suspect. Rogers had been arrested on suspicion of another murder, having been accused of killing 76-year-old Mary Beth Blaskey. Police added that sexual crimes were also committed in that attack on Fremontia Drive. Blaskey had been found dead by one of her sons.
Charges in the Blaskey murder, however, had been dismissed, according to court records. But the police persisted in seeking suspects in other home invasion murders, including the Paulin case. Since Rogers had been a suspect in the Blaskey case, they were able to attempt to link him to the Paulin case using the DNA evidence.
San Bernardino had undergone a series of home invasion crimes during that span, including murders of elderly people in the northern section of the city. “The facts surrounding Ms. Paulin’s murder are shocking,” said District Attorney Mike Ramos, “especially when you consider her age and vulnerability.”
Ramos said at the time of Paulin’s murder that his office would prosecute any suspect the fullest extent of the law, “and make sure that we seek justice for our victim and her family.”
Said Police Chief Jarrod Burguan: “This is another example of the tenacious investigate work performed by our officers on a daily basis.” Charges against Rogers included both murder and an act of sexual penetration.
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