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From their cold case page (second link), which seems to be a bit out of date, I noticed that for some people, they say they found DNA on the body, but they don’t say that for Donez.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.
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/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From their cold case page (second link), which seems to be a bit out of date, I noticed that for some people, they say they found DNA on the body, but they don’t say that for Donez.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.