16-year-old girl found dead on side of road in 1978, cops say. Man now sentenced

A man will go to prison after being accused of killing a 16-year-old girl in Alaska, officials said.

In January 1978, Shelley Connolly was found dead on the side of the road in Anchorage, according to an April 26 news release from the Alaska Department of Law.

Alaska State Troopers investigated the killing and suspected rape, but the case eventually went cold, officials said.

Detectives gathered evidence from Connolly’s body and created a DNA profile, officials said.

Even though the profile was uploaded into the nationwide DNA database, no matches were found, officials said.

The case was reopened and then in 2019, Alaska State Troopers connected 67-year-old Donald McQuade of Oregon to the case using genetic genealogy, officials said.

“Through DNA testing, investigators were able to match DNA samples collected from two places on Connolly’s body to McQuade’s DNA,” officials said.

Kyle Barber, a public defender representing McQuade, told Alaska Public Media during McQuade’s trial that the case against him “relies almost entirely on DNA evidence.”

“For them, science is everything, little else matters,” Barber told the outlet. “DNA does not answer all questions. In fact, it only answers very specific questions and in this case, it doesn’t answer the most important questions: Who was with Shelley Connolly when she actually died, and/or was raped and killed?”

McQuade was later convicted, but “he and his legal team have maintained his innocence,” KTUU reported.

Barber did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on April 29.

McQuade was sentenced to 50 years in prison, officials said.

“My family felt really guilty,” Connolly’s niece Shyla Malone told KTUU in December following McQuade’s guilty verdict. “They just felt guilty, even though it wasn’t their fault. You know, the ‘What ifs,’ the, ‘What could I have done?’ I just wish that they were here to have seen this as well.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2024 at 12:22 PM with the headline "16-year-old girl found dead on side of road in 1978, cops say. Man now sentenced."