DNA links Indiana man to Georgia woman's 33-year-old cold case murder: sheriff

MONROE COUNTY, Ga. - Investigators have cracked a more than three decades old cold case in Monroe County wide open thanks to DNA evidence linking the suspect to the crime.

Larry Padgett, age 59 of Loogootee, Indiana is awaiting extradition to Georgia for the 1989 murder of Mary Wilfong.

According to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, Wilfong had been sexually assaulted before she was strangled to death and left along Johnstonville Road near I-75. Her body was located by deer hunters on November 21 of that year.

At the time, investigators received tips that the 23-year-old had disappeared after being spotted getting into a tractor trailer with a white male at the Farmers Market at Forest Park.  During the investigation several suspects were sought after, interviewed and DNA was taken from the suspects. However, investigators say the DNA samples taken from the suspects did not match the DNA taken from the victim.

The case was eventually closed and was unsolved.

The sheriff's office reopened the case in March 2019, re-submitting the original evidence to the GBI crime-lab due to new technology.

The evidence was eventually brought down to Miami, Florida to DNA International for a genealogy trace to be completed on the DNA taken from the victim. After receiving the DNA results, the sheriff's office reach out to FBI Atlanta for assistance.

Investigators were able to identify Padgett as a suspect. Testing revealed DNA taken from Padgett matched DNA taken from the body of Wilfong, investigators said.

Padgett was taken into custody in Indiana on March 1. While in Indiana, Investigators say they were able to obtain more evidence in the case linking Padgett to the murder of Mary Willfong. 

Padgett will be held in Indiana until a waiver of extradition is signed.