Jeffrey Paul Premo Wiki

            Jeffrey Paul Premo Biography

Jeffrey Paul Premo, 52, was arrested Monday and charged with the murder of 19-year-old Jennifer Brinkman, according to Marysville Police Department and jail records. Premo was being held at the Snohomish County Jail on a $250,000 bond for first degree murder.

Police this week arrested a suspect in the 1998 murder of a teenager in Washington state, bringing a sense of closure to the more than two-decade-long investigation with the help of DNA evidence.

Brinkman was found dead in her bedroom after her father and her then-girlfriend returned from vacation on March 21, 1998. She had been struck on the neck with an axe, which she recovered from. the scene.

Investigation

Although investigators found DNA on the weapon, outdated technology prevented them from finding a match.

But the sample was analyzed by Parabon NanoLabs in 2020, and the results allowed investigators to obtain a warrant for the suspect’s DNA, which he voluntarily surrendered, police said.

The Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory said the accused killer’s genetic material eventually matched the DNA found on the hatchet.

“Solving this case has been at the top of the Marysville Police Department’s priority list for the past 24 years,” Police Chief Erik Scairpon said in a statement Tuesday.

“We never gave up or put this on a shelf. It was continually being investigated, with the belief that one day we could achieve some level of closure for the family and justice for Jennifer.”

Brinkman, who was reportedly very social

Brinkman, who was reportedly very social, is believed to have met her killer over a phone chat line.

The first investigators found a letter the suspect wrote to Brinkman before her death that indicated the couple had met.

Premo denied meeting her in his initial interview with police. After he was arrested, police said, Premo invoked his constitutional rights and officers have not revealed a motive for the crime.

“It’s one of those things where he never leaves his thought process because it remains unresolved,” Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux said at a news conference Tuesday. Lamoureux was the first detective in the Brinkman murder and is still leading investigations with the Marysville Police Department.

“It wasn’t until yesterday when we made the arrest and I was sitting at home thinking about it that it really dawned on me that we have a conclusion to this and we can finally put it on a shelf and close it. not just for us as researchers who have been involved but for the family and the community,” he continued.

Although Brinkman’s father died in 2013, police were able to tell her mother about the progress of the case.

“She was extremely excited,” Lamoureux said. “I think it was an overwhelming emotion for her to finally have an answer.”

The Marysville Police Department did not respond to The Post’s request for comment Wednesday.

Murder

The murder of Jennifer Brinkman is one of several unsolved cases now being assisted by advanced DNA technology. Earlier this month, police in Fairfax County, Virginia announced that genetic testing identified two brothers from Maryland as the rapists who attacked a 21-year-old woman in a shopping mall parking lot in 1988.