DeLAND, Fla. – DeLand police are revisiting a 44-year-old cold case and giving hope for a family seeking closure.
In 1981, 78-year-old Mellie Coger was found dead. Now, the availability of new technology has led police to re-interview key witnesses and submit additional DNA evidence.
The police chief anticipates that within the next few weeks, they will present the case to the state attorney’s office, potentially leading to a murder indictment in Coger’s death.
“She raised me from the time I was 4 years old and she’s my role model and she was such a loving person,” said Vip Hill, Coger’s granddaughter.
For decades, the family has awaited answers about who killed their loved one.
“She was very giving and I think this is how it all happened because the word got out that you could go to her for this and that and from what I gathered the person who did it took advantage of it,” Hill said.
Coger’s case is the oldest of 19 cold cases in DeLand.
“I started reviewing it and I saw there was potential in it, so we started submitting DNA evidence that we had to the FDLE and that’s where we’re going from there is with that new technology of DNA,” DeLand police Cpl. Roger Spires said.
Parts of Stetson University now sit on the site where Coger’s house once was on East Michigan Avenue. It was in that house that police discovered her brutally beaten and murdered.
“We’re going to exhaust every possible avenue that we can exhaust to try to get to justice,” said DeLand Police Chief Jason Umberger.
A suspect was identified at the time of Coger’s death, but there wasn’t enough evidence for charges.
With fresh witness interviews, police now believe they have the proof needed to confirm their original suspect as the prime person of interest. They are currently awaiting results from new DNA technology.
“Hopefully we can put an end to this. It’s been such a long time. A very long time,” Hill said.
While police have not yet disclosed the name of the person of interest, they confirmed that he is already in prison for another murder that was committed in 1987 in Oviedo.