Nearly four decades after a woman was brutally murdered and had her body dumped in a Davie canal, police believe they’ve identified her killer and solved the cold case.
On the morning of Oct. 22, 1987, someone spotted Marilyn Decker’s body in a canal on the 3000 block of Flamingo Road.
The 28-year-old had been stabbed multiple times and the Broward Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by asphyxiation.
Detectives investigated and identified multiple suspects but the case went unsolved until Davie Police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement continued their investigation in 1995.
But the case stayed cold until 2021 when it was reopened and detectives interviewed possible suspects and contacted family members.
Decker’s case was even featured on a Broward Crime Stoppers billboard off Interstate 595 and the Florida’s Turnpike.
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The Broward Crime Stoppers billboard for Marilyn Decker
Detectives also sent hair samples taken from the scene to DNA experts, and the results indicated several of the hairs shared the same male DNA, police said.
A genealogist spent months putting together a genetic tree and provided Davie Police with a possible suspect: Donald Lawless.
Investigators found Lawless lived in Florida from the early 1980s through 1993 and had lived in Davie.
Lawless, who was born in 1925, had an extensive criminal past that dated back to the 1940s, police said.
Investigators began searching for Lawless but discovered he’d died in Ohio in 1995 and was cremated.
But police were able to obtain DNA from a close relative of Lawless, which was then sent to DNA experts for comparison.
Based on the genetic genealogy analysis and circumstantial evidence, Lawless was confirmed to be the suspect in Decker’s death, police said.
Detectives presented the case to the Broward State Attorney’s Office which determined there was enough evidence to charge Lawless with Decker’s murder and the case was closed.
Davie Police were scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the case.