SPOKANE, Wash. — More than 60 years after a 9-year-old girl was kidnapped and killed in Spokane, police now know who murdered her, thanks to DNA.
Candice Rogers vanished on March 6, 1959, while she was selling campfire mints in her neighborhood.
Detectives combed through numerous tips, leads and clues for decades but never found a viable suspect.
Earlier this year, police sent a DNA sample from Candice’s clothing to a Texas genealogy lab.
One of the possible matches was John Reigh Hoff, who had died decades ago, and he was the only one of three brothers who had children.
Hoff’s daughter met with detectives and she gave them a sample of her DNA.
That sample triggered a search warrant to exhume Hoff’s body and DNA taken from his remains was an exact match.
“Obviously, Cand Rogers is the primary victim of this incident. Nothing like this should ever happen to a child anytime, anywhere. And yet it did. Her family and friends would be considered the next victims in this case. They had to live with this entire time. And now perhaps, they can find some peace in the resolution,” said Lt. Troy Teigen with the Spokane Police Department.
Hoff lived a mile away from Rogers and he was 20 years old when he killed her.
Hoff ended up killing himself 11 years later in 1971 at the age of 31.