Police hope DNA imaging will solve brutal cold-case murder of grandmother, 64

That Iris Harless’ brutal murder remains unsolved is against the odds.

So it’s no wonder Columbus police would call a news conference Thursday to make another push at finally clearing the 2003 cold case:

They’ve long had almost everything needed to charge the man who beat and strangled Harless in her 4717 Northgate home before fighting her grandson and jumping out a window to get away.

They have blood from which to draw DNA. They have multiple witnesses who say they saw the man in the Reese Road area. They have sketches of him.

They just don’t know his name. No matching DNA profile has turned up in the Combined DNA Index System(CODIS) database maintained by the FBI, which compiles DNA samples from crime scenes and from people sentenced to prison.

Now investigators are trying a new tool, DNA phenotyping, which uses DNA evidence from crime scenes to create a computer-generated “snapshot” image of the person from whom the genetic material came.

The technique enables authorities to build sketches of what the person would look like over time, as the individual ages. It has been tested on known subjects to gauge its accuracy.

Now police have renderings of what Iris Harless’ killer – described in 2003 as in his 20s or early 30s – would look like today, 14 years later, in his late 30s or 40s.

With those images to show, police hope someone, finally, will recognize him.

The witnesses

The man no one recognized 14 years ago killed 64-year-old Iris Charlene Harless on March 29, 2003, a night with no shortage of witnesses.

About 9 p.m., an off-duty Columbus Fire and Emergency Medical Services captain and his wife saw a drunk man on the ground vomiting along Reese Road near Shenandoah Drive.

When they stopped to see if he was OK, he asked them for a ride to a bar called Coach's Corner. It since has closed, but back then it was in the Gentian Corners Shopping Center on Gentian Boulevard at Reese Road.

The couple refused and left.

Minutes later, a high school football coach and his wife saw the man near Fairview Drive. They said he was wearing a white button-down shirt and blue jeans.

Later the man tried to break into a Reese Road home, but cut his hand. He used his white shirt as a bandage before stuffing the shirt in his back pocket and walking on, leaving a trail of blood from Reese Road to Northgate Drive.

DNA tests matched that blood to blood at Harless’ home.

The murder

In a 2006 Ledger-Enquirer interview, a police lieutenant said Harless likely confronted her killer outside her home, perhaps because her three dogs were barking.

She wore a nightgown and had a cordless phone as she fought the man in her driveway, where she dropped the phone before he dragged her inside, beat and strangled her.

A grandson who lived with Harless came home with friends and confronted the intruder, whom the grandson fought as his friends ran to a neighbor’s home. The grandson nearly bit the man’s thumb off before locking him in a bedroom, from which the killer escaped through a window.

Police said his last sighting may have been on Miller Road near Cooper Creek Park. He was described as muscular with dark hair, and in his late 20s or early 30s. Witnesses estimated his height to be around 6 feet.

During Thursday’s news conference, investigators reiterated that DNA evidence ties the Reese Road burglary to the Harless homicide, but they said they were not sure whether the killer was the same man witnesses saw walking along the road.

Some witnesses described the man as white. DNA analysis showed the burglar and killer likely had a brown or light brown complexion, as his ancestry turned out to be about 24 percent Central American, 23 percent West African, and 13 percent South American. His European and North African ancestry each was around 8 percent.

He should have brown eyes and brown hair.

The images were created by Parabon Nanolabs.

Anyone able to offer any tips on a suspect is asked to contact Cpl. Donna Baker at 706-225-4047 or dbaker@columbusga.org.

The victim

Born May 13, 1938, Harless had two daughters, three grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Her family said she was an avid cook who enjoyed having everyone come to her home on holidays and birthdays.

"Oh my gosh, she was an amazing cook," daughter Sandra Velazquez said in 2006. "She had a big, big kitchen and everyone used to come together there."

Harless’ daughters were born in late August, one on Aug. 27 and the other Aug. 29.

"She used to make us each our favorite meals and cake,” Velazquez recalled.

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 1:07 PM with the headline "Police hope DNA imaging will solve brutal cold-case murder of grandmother, 64."