For over two decades she was simply known as Jane Doe – an unidentified victim of a brutal rape and murder who was left for dead in 1998 in a grassy area in southwest Broward County off of U.S. 27.
Jane Doe’s identity remained a mystery until earlier this year when relentless detective work and DNA analysis identified Jane Doe as Eileen Truppner. Now, almost 25 years to the date of Eileen’s murder, Broward Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit detectives have arrested her killer.
His name is Lucious Boyd. A convicted murderer, rapist and suspected serial killer. Boyd remains on death row for the murder of 21-year-old Dawnia Dacosta who was murdered approximately two weeks prior to Eileen’s homicide in South Florida.
Once again, DNA analysis played a crucial role in investigators unabated efforts to close the case. As part of the Roberto Fernandes case, BSO cold case homicide detectives retested the sex assault kit in the Jane Doe case in 2021. Detectives were testing to determine if Fernandes might have been responsible for her murder.
Investigators contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and requested the assistance of their genetic genealogy unit. Forensic genetic genealogy allows law enforcement’s use of DNA analysis combined with traditional genealogy research to generate investigative leads for unsolved crimes. The DNA results led to the first major breakthrough in the case – her identity.
Then, another major break in the case – advancements in DNA testing technology enabled crime lab detectives to connect Eileen’s DNA to Boyd’s DNA, which had been collected as evidence in the Dacosta homicide.
On November 29th, a Broward County grand jury indicted Boyd for Eileen’s murder. Boyd now faces additional first-degree murder and sexual battery charges.
“Lucious Boyd’s indictment for Eileen’s homicide is possible due to the collaborative efforts of BSO cold case detectives, crime lab analysts and crime scene investigators,” Sheriff Gregory Tony said. “Now, Eileen’s family can put an end to decades of living with uncertainty while detectives continue their mission with one thing in mind – justice has no expiration date.”
Eileen’s story was the focus of the fourth episode of the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s “Open and Unsolved” cold case series. An update to that episode was released later.
