DNA testing IDs executed man as Texas girl’s killer in 1979

CONROE, Texas (AP) — Authorities say a man executed more than two decades ago has been identified through DNA testing as the person who killed a Texas girl in 1979. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said Monday new forensic technology led investigators to identify Gerald Casey as the person who strangled 12-year-old Lesia Michell Jackson. She went missing in September 1979 after going swimming in her Conroe neighborhood and her body was found six days later. An autopsy concluded she was sexually assaulted before her death. When deputies searched for Casey, they found out that he had been executed in April 2002 for fatally shooting a Montgomery County woman during a robbery.