In case you missed the announcement over the weekend, Dallas police say that DNA evidence collected 33 years ago from a crime scene in Oak Cliff has solved a long-cold case.
Mary Hague Kelly’s murder happened on North Frances Street near Eighth Street on January 19, 1989. Police found her strangled to death, her personal belongings and car missing from the scene, according to a recent Dallas Police Department announcement.
“At the time of Kelly’s death, DNA samples were taken. The investigation into Kelly’s death continued, and on June 28, 2022, DNA testing came back that the sample taken from Kelly’s body was a match to [53-year-old David] Rojas. Following further investigation, Rojas was taken into custody on July 22, 2022, in Dallas and taken to the Dallas County Jail.”
He faces a capital murder charge.
When the DPD shared the announcement on Facebook, at least one person commented that they knew Rojas from the neighborhood. It is unclear at this point where Rojas has been living and working all these years. I put in a request to the DPD public information office for some additional information about the victim or the suspect. A cursory search yielded no news stories about nor an obituary for Mary Hague Kelly in 1989. If you are familiar with the case, we would like to hear from you.
