The man found guilty for the murder of Lena Bruce will spend the rest of his life in prison.
After 25 years of investigation, the Lena Bruce homicide files are huge, taking up almost an entire table. But now a quarter century later, Lena's case is closed.
On Monday, James Witkowski was convicted of Lena's murder.
At Boston Police Headquarters, Boston 25 News reporter Bob Ward sat down with the Boston Police Cold Case Homicide detectives who worked the case and never gave up.
Lena Bruce was found sexually assaulted and murdered in the bedroom of her Mass Ave. apartment in July 1992.
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Sgt. Detective William Doogan got the case in 2010, but it wasn't for another five years that a DNA match took the case in a whole new direction and led right to Witkowski, a homeless man living in the area.
"We all went through the file, repeatedly, his name appears nowhere at all," said Doogan.
Only on @boston25, @Bward3 talks to the @bostonpolice homicide detectives who broke Lena Bruce murder, see at 6pm how science helped crack the #coldcase after 25 years. #boston25 #boston pic.twitter.com/sbaui17uK6
— Chetan Rakieten (@chetanrakieten) December 12, 2017
Witkowski's DNA was retrieved from biological evidence found inside Lena Bruce and from what Doogan calls, chunks of flesh found underneath her fingernails.
Doogan interviewed Witkoski three times.
"We knew he was lying to us. I knew it. Science says he's lying to us," said Doogan.
On Monday, the jury rejected Witkowski's defense that he had a consensual relationship with Lena and finally, after 25 years, justice for Lena and her family.
"That's as much of a weight we can take off their shoulders, is to give them the answers of who did to Lena what they did," said Doogan.
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