Cold case solved: 35 years after Sarasota slaying, police ID suspected killer
The homicide of a 28-year-old Sarasota woman finally has been solved decades later, thanks to improvements in DNA testing and technology, according to the Sarasota Police Department.
The body of Denise Marie Stafford was found in the 300 block of Tarpon Avenue, on October 13, 1985. The new mom was home with her infant daughter, Civilian Investigator Jeff Birdwell said during a news conference Wednesday.
Birdwell works in the criminal investigations division of the Sarasota Police Department, and in March 2020 he began going through evidence collected in older cases in search of items that might benefit from being retested using technology that wasn’t available when the cases were initially investigated, the police department said in a news release Wednesday.
In July 2021, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement notified Birdwell a DNA match had been found for a sample taken from Stafford’s pants. The DNA belonged to Joseph Magaletti, a man who had been a person of interest in the killing during the initial investigation, police said.
Magaletti died in prison in 2015, the release said.
