DNA aids Metro probe of murdered seniors

DNA analysis of T-shirts left behind at a crime scene is helping Metro Police inch closer to finding the killer of two senior citizens at the AmeriPark Lodges retirement community.

Metro's crime lab was able to determine from biological evidence left on the T-shirts that the person they are looking for is most likely black and has curly hair. Hair is among the collected evidence. Police are hesitant to discuss whether the blood found on the T-shirts belonged to the killer as well as the victim.

Wallace Siegel, 75, was found bludgeoned to death in the early morning hours of May 16 by his son who had moved into Siegel's ground-floor unit after the elderly man broke his hip.

The body of Helen Sabraw, 86, his neighbor at the complex at 4255 S. Spencer St. near Flamingo Road, was discovered the next morning when her son came to visit.

Sgt. Kevin Manning said today that biological evidence found on the shirts is believed to be the killer's. Most of the evidence recovered in the case was recovered from Sabra's second-floor unit, where police say the elderly woman desperately tried to fight off her attacker.

Siegel, who had recently made the transition from a walker to a cane after hip surgery, apparently was attacked while seated in the chair where his body was found, police said.

Police believe Siegel and Sabraw were killed about the same time and by the same person. The double murder investigation, however, has become quite time consuming for police. Past weeks have been consumed by interviewing the complex's past and current employees, 114 residents and their families for clues.

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