Our thanks to Ian for this. An extract:

“At the time of the victim’s autopsy, [J4MB: In 1983] the coroner conducted a sexual assault examination and collected bodily fluids of the perpetrator, according to the district attorney’s office.

Hastings sought DNA testing of that evidence in 2000, but at that time, the DA’s office denied the request. [J4MB emphasis.] Hastings submitted a claim of innocence to the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2021, and DNA testing found that the semen was not his. In 2022, when he was 69, Hastings conviction was vacated at the request of prosecutors and his lawyers.

The DNA profile was put into a state database and matched to a person who was convicted of a separate armed kidnapping and forced copulation of a female victim who was placed in a vehicle’s trunk — harrowing details that closely resembled Wydermyer’s killing.

Law enforcement apprehended the suspect, Kenneth Packnett, less than three weeks after the 1983 murder in connection with an unrelated car theft, Hastings lawyers said. When Packnett was arrested, police found jewelry and a coin purse that matched the items Wydermyer had when she was murdered. Packnett wasn’t investigated for Wydermyer’s murder at the time.”

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