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A Syracuse man was arrested Wednesday for a murder that occurred in 1975 in San Diego, Calif.
According to a news release from the Indiana State Police (ISP), investigators with the ISP - including the Cold Case Unit - were contacted in 2024 by San Diego Cold Case detectives and asked to assist with a 1975 murder case. Indiana investigators provided assistance over the next year. They were able to identify Johnnie Ray Salisbury, 71, of 9116 N. Koher Road East, Syracuse.
According to cbs8.com, the San Diego Police Department said Salisbury allegedly killed then-34-year-old Edmund LaFave, whose lifeless body was found in a pool of blood in his bedroom at his residence in the 2900 block of Suncrest Drive on Feb. 25, 1975.
LaFave had been severely beaten and repeatedly stabbed. Despite an exhaustive investigation at the onset of the case, it eventually went cold, cbs8.com reports.
Investigators identified Salisbury as LaFave’s alleged killer via genetic geneaology, which combines DNA testing with analysis of family histories and other forensic evidence.
Police have not disclosed a motive for the homicide, cbs8.com reported.
Investigators from the San Diego Police Department flew to Indiana this week. Salisbury was taken into custody when an arrest warrant was served on Salisbury Wednesday, Jan. 21.
The Syracuse Police Department assisted with this warrant service.
Salisbury was transported to the Kosciusko County Jail where he awaits extradition back to California.
He was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 9:20 a.m. Wednesday on a foreign warrant with no bond.
