FL- Earnestine Mortimore, 75, died of strangulation & blunt force during robbery, @ home, Riviera Beach, 28 April '95, DNA- Willie Rogers, '25.

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Feb 11 2025 Lengthy.

'It's a relief': Modern DNA tests help police crack 75-year-old woman's cold-case homicide

DNA tests were limited when someone killed Earnestine Mortimore at her Riviera Beach home in 1995. Nearly 30 years later, police have made an arrest.

www.palmbeachpost.com

''RIVIERA BEACH — For nearly three decades, Shatonda Stewart has lived with the question of whether the person who killed her grandmother would ever be found. Now she may have an answer.

On Feb. 10, Riviera Beach police announced that a cold-case investigation has led detectives to the man they believe to be responsible in the April 28, 1995, murder of 75-year-old Earnestine Mortimore.

Police and city officials announced that a grand jury indicted Willie Rogers on Jan. 30 in connection to Mortimore's death. He is facing a charge of first-degree murder.''
''Investigators say Mortimore was killed in an apparent burglary at her home on the 1400 block of West 36th Street, just south of the Lake Park town border.

At the time of her death, the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office ruled that she died of strangulation and multiple injuries due to blunt trauma.''

 

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Cold case cracked: DNA leads to arrest in 1995 Riviera Beach killing

After 30 years, Riviera Beach police have identified a suspect in the 1995 cold case murder of a 75-year-old woman.

news3lv.com

Earnestine Mortimore (WPEC)

Willie Rodgers
"Officials say advancements in DNA technology were critical in the case.

When the murder was originally investigated, blood forensics was limited to blood types. Now, a more detailed DNA profile can be analyzed.

"Mr. Rogers lived in the neighborhood, and we suspect that it was probably some type of burglary or robbery that went bad," said MacBeigh. "We had samples from back then that we collected from people in the neighborhood, and Mr. Rogers was one of them."