Jessica Baggen’s Murder Case Solved With Steve Branch’s Autopsy DNA Sample

Thanks to an autopsy DNA sample, the 1996 murder of Alaskan teen Jessica Baggen has been solved.

Alaska State Troopers announced Tuesday they were able to obtain a DNA sample from suspect Steve Branch during an autopsy, reports USA Today. This was after police had interviewed Branch, a 66-year-old from Austin, Arkansas, at his home on Aug. 3. During their meeting, Branch refused to submit a sample and less than an hour after their leave, died by suicide.

The DNA police obtained from Branch positively matched with a sample left at the scene with Baggen’s body, the State of Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory in Anchorage confirmed.

Branch had emerged as a suspect in the case in early 2019. After authorities obtained a sample from one of Branch’s relatives earlier this year, it was determined in May that he was likely involved in Baggen’s murder.

Baggen was 17-years-old when she was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death near a roadway in Sitka, Alaska, in May 1996. She had gone missing two days prior, reports NBC News.

“She just turned 17 the day before and was visiting with a friend and her sister at her sister’s residence, when she decided to walk home alone, which was about a mile away. Her parents woke the next morning to find that she never made it back,” the Alaska State Trooper’s Facebook page recounted.

“Sitka PD mobilized the local search and rescue team. They focused their efforts in the wooded area west of the Indian River, between the campus of Sheldon Jackson College and Sawmill Creek Road. Soon a shirt, later identified as the one Jessica was wearing when she was last seen alive, was located. Jessica was found dead less than two hours later; it was May 6th. Jessica was left discarded and hastily buried in a hollowed-out area beneath the trunk of a large fallen tree, approximately 70 feet off the bike path which paralleled Sawmill Creek Road. Most of her clothing and belongings were found in the immediate area, as well.”

Over the past 24 years, over 100 suspects had been cleared. Previously, one man had admitted to killing Baggen, but physical evidence could not link him to the murder.

Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner Amanda Price said the case is now being considered “solved.”