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		</div><h6><span style="color: #000000;">Florida dental hygienist, 59, from Jacksonville, Florida arrested for 1984 cold case murder of female Navy graduate</span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #000000;">Minnesota woman Pamela Cahanes, 25, was beaten and strangled to death on August 5, 1984, two days after graduating from the Orlando Naval Training Center in Florida </span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #000000;">She was found beaten and strangled to death two days after graduating from the Orlando Naval Training Center in Florida </span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #000000;">Her killer went free for 34 years after no DNA matches were found in the database</span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #000000;">On Wednesday Florida dental hygienist Thomas Lewis Garner, 59, was arrested after he was traced using DNA on a genealogy database</span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #000000;">Garner and Cahanes had been stationed at the Orlando Naval training center at the same time </span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #000000;">He was traced after investigators used genealogy database Parabon Nanolabs to create a family tree using DNA found on her body and named him a suspect</span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #000000;">Investigators trailed him and tested a dropped &#8216;personal item&#8217; and found him to be a match </span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #000000;">He is in custody, held on murder charges, but hasn&#8217;t admitted to committing the murder</span><strong> </strong></h6>
<h6 class="author-section byline-plain"><strong> <img class="alignnone wp-image-311041" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thomas-Lewis-Garner-1-295x300.png" alt="" width="617" height="627" />Thomas Lewis Garner, 59, [photo], was identified using advanced genealogy technology in the cold case murder of Navy recruit Pamela Cahanes, who was found beaten and strangled to death in August 1984 in Orlando, Fla</strong></h6>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">The cold case of a female Navy recruit&#8217;s vicious murder in 1984 has finally been cracked nearly 35 years later thanks to a match found on a genealogy database.<br />
Freshly minted seaman Pamela Cahanes, from Minnesota was just 25 when she was beaten and strangled to death, two days after graduating from Orlando Naval Training Center in August of 1984. Her white uniform was found strewn inches away from her body.<br />
The killer went free for 34 years after investigators failed to find a match for her assailant&#8217;s DNA found on her body despite exhaustive testing.<br />
Finally, on Wednesday Thomas Lewis Garner, 59, a dental hygienist from Jacksonville, Florida, was arrested for her murder after investigators tracked him down using genealogy service Parabon Nanolabs.<br />
Garner and Cahanes had been stationed at the Orlando Naval training center at the same time. Authorities are not sure on how the two encountered each other.</p>
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<p class="imageCaption"><strong><img class="alignnone wp-image-311040" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Pamela-Cahanes-1-300x300.png" alt="" width="681" height="681" /> Navy recruit Pamela Cahanes, 25, [photo] who was found beaten and strangled to death in August 1984 two days after she graduated from Naval trainig. Her killer has was identified using genealogy service Parabon Nanolabs</strong></p>
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<h6 class="mobile-gallery-icon"><strong><img class="alignnone wp-image-311046" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Dennis-Lemma-1-300x300.png" alt="" width="626" height="626" />Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma announced the breakthrough arrest on Thursday [photo], on the Cahanes murder after for 34 years. The suspect EThomas Garner was jailed without bond on murder charges, Wednesday</strong></h6>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">Investigators waited for DNA technology to advance and finally worked with Parabon NanoLabs to create Garner&#8217;s family tree and later narrow down to the suspect.<br />
Authorities then trailed after Garner until he dropped a &#8216;personal item&#8217; and they tested it for DNA and found it matched the evidence found on Cahanes&#8217; body.</p>
<h6 class="mobile-gallery-icon"><img class="alignnone wp-image-311049" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Pamela-Cahanes-4-300x217.png" alt="" width="812" height="587" /><strong>Local police set up this billboard to raise awareness about Cahanes&#8217; unsolved murder in Florida, hoping to receive helpful tips, but it failed to yield results for decades</strong></h6>
<p class="mol-para-with-font">The odds of the DNA belonging to anyone other than Garner is 700 billion to one. &#8216;We were certain that he was the person responsible for the murder. Actually, it was scientific confirmation,&#8217; Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said on Thursday, announcing the breakthrough arrest.<br />
Garner was arrested Wednesday at his Jacksonville home and was taken to Seminole County Jail where he&#8217;s being held without bond on a first-degree murder charge, according to the <a class="class" href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ne-pamela-cahanes-cold-case-solved-20190314-story.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Orlando Sentinel. </a><br />
However, he has not admitted to killing Cahanes on August 5, 1984.<br />
She was found face-down in her underwear a yard of a vacant home covered in blood near the academy. It did not appear that she had been sexually assaulted.</p>
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<div class="mobile-gallery-icon"><img class="alignnone wp-image-311047" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Pamela-Cahanes-second-left-2-300x160.png" alt="" width="932" height="497" />Cahanes [second left with peers at her graduation], was found strangled and beaten to death on on August 5, 1984, two days after she had graduated from the Orlando Naval Training Center in Florida.<br />
The Naval recruit and Thomas Garner were both at the training center at the same time though it&#8217;s not clear how they ran into each other.</div>
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<h6 class="imageCaption"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-311050" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Parabon-Nanolabs-1-300x93.png" alt="" width="726" height="225" /><strong>Garner was traced after investigators used genealogy service Parabon Nanolabs to create a family tree using DNA found on Cahanes&#8217; body and named him a suspect. </strong><strong>They tested a personal item he dropped and found it to be a DNA match </strong></h6>
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<div class="mobile-gallery-icon"><img class="alignnone wp-image-311048" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Pamela-Cahanes-3-226x300.png" alt="" width="618" height="820" /><strong>Advances in DNA testing technology aided investigators in isolating DNA found on Cahanes&#8217; body which had been tested for years to no avail</strong></div>
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<div class="mobile-gallery-icon">Investigators had found DNA on Cahanes&#8217; body and tested it for years to no avail.<br />
Thanks to advances in technology, they were able to create a family based off the DNA and narrow down Garner as a suspect. Garner had a clean record other than a battery charge during his time serving in the navy.<br />
&#8216;It’s extremely bizarre to think that somebody could commit a crime like this, then go on and lead a normal life,&#8217; Sheriff Lemma said.<br />
Prior to the DNA family tree testing he was not considered a suspect.<br />
&#8216;If you think about his perspective, quite literally he was probably under the belief that he was getting away with murder,&#8217; Lemma said.<br />
Retired SCSO Investigator Bob Jaynes admantly worked on Cahanes&#8217; case for over 20 years, keeping a picture of her on his desk.<br />
He had hoped to find her killer before Cahanes&#8217; mother Alice Cahanes passed away. Unfortunately she died in 2016.<br />
&#8216;It is extremely sad to know that our victim’s mom had passed away, and never had the opportunity to see this. I’m convinced she’s looking down from heaven right now, knowing this is a day of relief as this person is held accountable and responsible for what he’s done,&#8217; Lemma said at a press conference Thursday.<br />
Cahanes was one of eight children from Minnesota. Some of her siblings gathered at a home there to hear the news.<br />
&#8216;Pam was a loving, charming farm girl at heart who wanted to continue to explore by going into the Navy,&#8217; her sister Eileen Bergmann, 69, said to the local peper.<br />
&#8216;I guess (we) didn’t think this day would come. It was 1984. They didn’t have DNA in those days and it went on and on,&#8217; she added to <a class="class" href="https://www.clickorlando.com/news/https:/www.clickorlando.com/news/seminole-county-sheriff-to-make-major-announcement" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Click Orlando. </a><br />
Linda&#8217;s murder joins a number of cold cases that have been potentially solved through the use of modern DNA technology.<br />
In August, Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested for a dozen murders and 50 rapes that took place back in the late 70s and 80s, after investigators utilized the online genealogical sites Ancenstry.com and 23andMe.</div>
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Florida dental hygienist, 59, arrested in 35-year cold case murder of female Navy graduate who was beaten and strangled to death in 1984; Thomas Lewis Garner was traced using DNA on a genealogy database
