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This candle shall burn for Judy until her killer is found and Justice is Served!

Handscuffs of Justice!

Donald Nash - 1982

DNA evidence found under the fingernails of Judy Spencer led to the March 28 arrest of Donald R. "Doc" Nash, 65, for his alleged role in Spencer's 1982 murder, according to a probable cause statement filed March 28 in Dent County Associate Circuit Court. Nash, now of Beaufort, located between Gerald and Union in Franklin County, was arrested 12:10 p.m. March 28 by investigators from the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control, according to a news release from Captain Luke Vislay of the MDDCC. Nash was transported to the Dent County jail where he is being held without bond, according to the release. Nash is charged with the Class A felony of capital murder, according to charges filed March 27 by Dent County Prosecuting Attorney Jessica Sparks. Charges allege that Spencer's murder was done with premeditation and deliberately. Capital murder is punishable by life imprisonment without parole or by death. Spencer was living in Salem at the time of her murder. Her body was discovered in rural Dent County in March 1982. Her partially nude body was found in an old outhouse foundation behind the old Bethlehem school on Highway 32 West. It was later determined that Spencer was strangled with a shoelace and shot in the neck with a shotgun. No court date has been set. Frank Carlson, of Union, is representing Nash, according to the associate court. The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Dent County Sheriff's Department investigated the murder. Investigators questioned Nash shortly after the death, according to the probable cause statement. Nash invoked his right to legal counsel and was not further questioned concerning the investigation, according to the probable cause statement. Dent County Sheriff Bob Wofford said March 28 there is no statute of limitations on murder. The case against Nash started to develop in November 2007 when highway patrol sergeant James Folsom submitted to the highway patrol crime lab for forensic examination items of physical evidence collected in 1982 by the original investigating officers, according to the probable cause statement. A forensic examination of the evidence resulted in an unidentified male DNA profile being discovered under the fingernail clippings taken from the left hand of Spencer. Additionally, it was also determined that at least one of these fingernails was broken and was in a jagged condition, which would be indicative of a physical struggle. On March 13, Folsom contacted Nash at his residence and obtained a voluntary swab of Nash's DNA for a comparison examination. On March 19, it was determined by the MSHP crime lab that Nash's DNA matched the DNA profile identified from the left hand fingernail clippings of Spencer. It was further determined that a mixture of Spencer's DNA and Nash's DNA was found under the left hand fingernails of Spencer. This DNA could not have been present under her fingernails earlier because a witness, Janet Jones, said Spencer washed her hair before going out just prior to the murder. The probable cause statement alleges the DNA was transferred during contact with Nash. This mixture of DNA is often normally the result of a physical struggle, according to the statement. On March 26, Folsom conducted an interview with Nash where Nash offered no explanation as to why his DNA was under the fingernails of Spencer. Folsom wrote in his probable cause statement that a short time after the interview began Nash terminated it. Earlier this month the Spencer family hoped that DNA found on a piece of evidence from the murder would lead to an arrest or confession. The DNA is an "eliminating profile," Spencer's sister-in-law, Darla Spencer, said at the time. "They are also processing some of the other items." "They haven't given us information as to which items, but we're hopeful the DNA process will be the break we've been hoping for. We're anxious for something to happen, and we hope something will come of this in the next few months." An arrest came quickly.