Man arrested for 1988 murder after spitting on the sidewalk in 2023

A 65-year-old man in Boston was arraigned on Friday for a murder that happened in 1988, all because he spit on the sidewalk outside of his home.

A 25-year-old woman named Karen Taylor was stabbed to death in her Roxbury home in 1988. When police investigated the scene, they collected some DNA scrapings from her clothes and fingernails. They also discovered a paystub on the floor belonging to a man named James Holloman, which was dated to the day before the murder. When investigators spoke with Holloman, he confirmed that he knew Taylor, but had not seen her for several weeks.

It's not clear why investigators dropped the case against Holloman after that. Decades later, someone decided to revisit the case using more modern DNA testing technology, but they still couldn't find any profile that matched the DNA collected at the scene of the crime in 1988.

So in 2023, a police officer staked out near Holloman's home, waited for him to spit on the sidewalk, and then collected a sample of that saliva for the forensic investigation laboratory—and were thus able to connect Holloman directly to the DNA that was present at the crime scene.

Holloman pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, but according to the Assistant DA (via Boston 25 News) did "recently" acknowledge that he had in fact seen Taylor the day before the death, though he still insisted that they were not involved in any physical altercation.

Holloman is currently being held without bail. The District Attorney praised the law enforcement agents involved for their "superb investigative work…using modern criminology science." Though some might argue it's worth reiterating that police had previously dropped any case against Holloman for undisclosed reasons and that there may have also been some confirmation bias at play in staking out the man's home.

Previously:
• The story of America's oldest solved cold case