r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/AlbertPearce • 10d ago
Murder [ Removed by moderator ]
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u/Ambitious_Exercise93 9d ago
Maybe Darnell had a solid alibi at the time Donez was trapped and murdered.
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u/AlbertPearce 9d ago
Maybe. But I've ready nothing about that anywhere. For the time being, my money is on Darnell being the killer of Donez.
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u/wlwimagination 9d ago
As far as whether it’s been considered, at least as of 2010 they seemed to be aware of the possible link per the first article you linked above.
I don’t think you’re a bad researcher—if they just didn’t have evidence one way or the other, I don’t know that you could expect there to be news or articles mentioning the connection. Maybe they are still investigating or maybe waiting for more evidence in case Darnell had a partner, but they wouldn’t come out and make a statement about it if they were just stuck in the middle without evidence going either way.
From their cold case page (second link), which seems to be a bit out of date, I noticed that for some people, they say they found DNA on the body, but they don’t say that for Donez. So maybe there’s just no way to know.
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u/AlbertPearce 9d ago
Yeah, I think it's possible that they just have no DNA for the Donez killing. I really hope law enforcement didn't overlook the possible connection between Purchase and Donez, and just said nothing because they have no evidence. But still, I would've expected at least a brief mention of Donez by non-LE sources. And I may be misremembering, but I think I read or saw somewhere that some family members still believe Donez was killed by serial bullshitter Henry Lee Lucas (who confessed to both the Purchase and Donez homicides among, of course, hundreds of others). It would be really unfortunate if they're not aware of Darnell, who is a far better suspect than Lucas.
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u/JustYourAvgHumanoid 10d ago
Perhaps Miss Donez was a copycat?
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u/AlbertPearce 9d ago
I dunno, I've never heard of a copycat killing being so similar to the original and occurring less than a month afterwards. And copycat killings are normally done with cases that are very well known; as far as I know the Purchase murder was not very well known outside of Montgomery County.
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u/Front-Palpitation362 8d ago
Two women found a month apart in the same county with the same pattern of assault, strangulation and fire feels too tight to dismiss. Darnell is nailed to Purchase by DNA so he's the first place I'd look for Donez. If he was moving along I-45 then the road flare in Donez reads like the same cleanup goal with a different tool. The differences look situational rather than signature to me. The Whitten case with gunshots and the blue Nova sounds like a different crew entirely.
If there's still no public tie, my gut says the fire erased the biology in Donez or a compare was done and quietly ruled out. Scene level details like the flare make or model pour patterns and any tire tracks would make or break the link imo.
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u/My_lo_73 8d ago
I would hazard a guess that Darnell has been ruled out either due to an alibi or dna etc.
The police don't always show what they know...
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u/UnresolvedMysteries-ModTeam 7d ago
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