US Air Force veteran is identified by DNA as killer who raped and strangled student in 1980 - but died of drug overdose on 24th anniversary of her murder

Authorities in San Diego relied on a combination of advanced DNA testing and genetic genealogy to solve a 1980 cold-case murder of a local college student, identifying the suspected killer as a US Air Force veteran.

But for 20-year-old Michelle Wyatt and her family there will be no justice served because John Patrick Hogan, the man who police say strangled the young woman with a telephone cord after raping her, died of a drug overdose in 2004. He was 42 years old.  

On Wednesday, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department announced the major break in the Wyatt case, which has been 40 years in the making.

Hogan, who was 18 years old at the time of the killing and likely did not know Wyatt, was identified as the suspect after investigators matched hitherto unknown DNA that was collected at the crime scene using commercial genetic genealogy sites, according to a press release.

Authorities in San Diego identified the late John Patrick Hogan as the man who they say raped and killed Michelle Wyatt, 20 , in October 1980

Wyatt, a college student, was found strangled to death with a telephone cord inside her condominium in Santee, California , after being raped 

A gravestone bearing Michelle Wyatt's name and the dates of her birth and death is pictured 

The case began unfolding on October 9, 1980, when deputies responded to a condominium complex on Kerrigan Court in the San Diego suburb of Santee after a woman reported finding her roommate, Wyatt, dead in the living room with a telephone cord wrapped around her neck.

An autopsy determined that Wyatt, who attended Grossmont College and worked as a cashier, died of asphyxiation cause by strangulation after being sexually assaulted.

The attack took place in the early morning hours, not long after Wyatt's boyfriend left her apartment and locked the front door behind him.

Witnesses reported hearing screams coming from Wyatt's apartment, but no one called 911 for help, according to the sheriff's department.

Investigators identified and interviewed multiple suspects and followed all possible leads until the case went cold.

Sixteen years later, Wyatt's murder was reviewed for additional leads and use of new DNA technology. Nearly 90 potential suspects were screened, and many of them provided DNA samples to compare against the biological evidence collected in 1980. 

The samples were sent for examination but no suspect was identified at the time. 

Hogan was an 18-year-old US Air Force serviceman at the time of the murder. Wyatt attended Grossmont College, worked as a cashier and had a boyfriend 

Wyatt's mother, Louise Wyatt, is pictured speaking to ABC10 not long after her daughter's brutal murder 

In June 2000, evidence from the scene was reexamined using up-to-date methods, revealing two separate DNA profiles.

The rape kit recovered from Wyatt revealed that one of the DNA profiles was the victim's boyfriend, who was eliminated as a suspect, and the other that came from an unidentified man. 

Hogan cannot be brought to justice because he died of a drug overdose in 2004. He was 42 years old 

In 2001, the unknown suspect's DNA was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, but no match was found. 

Last September, the San Diego County Sheriff Homicide Unit's Cold Case Team  and the Sheriff's Crime Laboratory selected Wyatt's murder to be worked using investigative genetic genealogy.

Over the next nine months, the team, with the assistance of the FBI identified Hogan, known at Pat Hogan, as a potential suspect using genetic genealogy.

A subsequent investigation has revealed that Hogan was born in Arizona in 1961 and moved to Santee sometime in the 1970s. He attended Santana High School and at one time may have lived in the same condominium complex as Wyatt. 

Hogan had friends in Wyatt's complex, whom he would frequently visit. At the time of the murder, Hogan lived just over a mile from the crime scene. 

Hogan joined the US Air Force in 1979 and was stationed in New Mexico for a brief time. He would travel back and forth from Arizona, Idaho and California until his death from a methamphetamine overdose in 2004. He was never identified as a suspect in Wyatt's killing in his lifetime. 

Louise Wyatt, seen above speaking to ABC10 in 2020, said she was thankful for the authorities' hard work but disappointed with the outcome of the case 

Through further DNA testing, it was revealed that the unknown DNA recovered at the system of Wyatt's rape and murder came from Hogan. 

'The investigation revealed substantial and convincing evidence that Hogan sexually assaulted and murdered Michelle,' the sheriff's press release stated.  

The Sheriff's Homicide Unit harnessed the science of genetic genealogy to track down relatives whose DNA profile matched those of the unidentified suspect in the homicide. 

The suspect's profile was developed and uploaded into commercial genealogy sites that allow law enforcement agencies to participate.

,The Cold Case Team then created family 'trees,' which led detectives to other potential relatives of the man. This process eventually led investigators to closer relatives and ended with contacting Hogan's direct family members who provided DNA samples, which confirmed the identification.   

'Michelle's murder would likely have gone unsolved if not for the use of investigative genetic genealogy,' the sheriff's office stated. 

Wyatt's parents, who are both in their 80s, expressed their gratitude for the work of the homicide detectives to identify their daughter's killer, but they said they were disappointed in the outcome, reported San Diego Union-Tribune. 

'OK, he’s dead, but I would have liked to have been able to talk to this man personally, ' said Louise Wyatt, Michelle’s mother. 'I just feel horrible for the ending.'