“Cold Case” in Oregon: Murderer convicted 44 years after the crime – thanks to a piece of chewing gum

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Mount Hood, Oregon (1977)

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On the evening of January 15, 1980, 19-year-old student Barbara Tucker was kidnapped in the parking lot of her university, Mt. Hood Community College. The next day, fellow students found Tucker's body. She had been raped and beaten to death. The police did not find the perpetrator.

But 44 years later, Robert Plympton, now 60, was convicted of murdering Tucker. He was convicted, among other things, by spitting out chewing gum. This comes from a press release from the district attorney in Multnomah, Oregon.

According to the DNA profile, the perpetrator had red hair

After Tucker's death, police officers swabbed her body's private parts. In 2000, authorities were able to find the perpetrator's DNA from the swabs. But it took another 21 years for the perpetrator to make a breakthrough in the case.

The DNA company Parabon Nanolabs examined the profile created and deduced what the perpetrator might have looked like. The company created family trees of people who had parts of the perpetrator's DNA.

The most important thing was that the perpetrator most likely had red hair, the genealogist in charge, CeCe Moore, told CNN. She followed the redheads in the family trees created and in March 2021 came across Robert Plympton, now 60, in Troutdale - a neighboring town to Gresham, where Tucker was murdered.

A spit out piece of chewing gum convicted him

Police officers tailed Plympton. When he spit out a piece of chewing gum, the police collected it and had the DNA in the saliva checked - it matched the perpetrator's DNA found on the dead woman. Plympton was arrested. On March 15, Plympton was convicted of murder. The sentence has not yet been announced.

At the trial, Plympton denied having committed the crime. "We will appeal the verdict and we are confident that the verdict will be overturned," his lawyers, Stephen and Jacob Houze, told CNN.

Editor's note: The story originally said the district attorney was based in Georgia. He is based in Oregon. We corrected the mistake.

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