HOUSTON — A Houston man charged in a cold case killing was surprised when he was arrested 17 years later, according to the investigator who helped crack the case.
Anthony Darrell Lankford, 64, was arrested at his home on Monday and charged with murder in the death of 43-year-old Bethal Ann Rawls on Nov. 12, 2007.
A relative found the victim's body in her apartment on Bissonnet near the Sam Houston Tollway in southwest Houston. She'd been beaten, stabbed multiple times and strangled.
Several persons of interest were investigated back then but eliminated based on DNA evidence.
In January, Sgt. Michael Burrow with the Houston Police Department homicide division decided to take another look at the case.
"It's an innocent victim case and it's a heinous crime," Burrow said. "What happened to Miss Rawls should never happen to anybody."
Burrow zeroed in on Lankford because of phone records.
"He's the last person that we know for sure that she talked to the night she was killed," Burrow explained.
Lankford was questioned after Rawls' death but no one followed up to get a DNA sample.
In February, Burrows said they got Lankford's DNA sample and recently got the results. It was a match.
After hearing the brutal nature of the crime, including that the knife was left in the victim, a judge set Lankford's bond at $700,000.
"Feels good to be able to look through the case, to find a thread that you can follow and for that thread to actually lead to something," Burrows said.
He said Rawls' family was pleasantly surprised to learn there'd finally been an arrest.
"I would say that it means that for the family members of people who've died at the hands of a murderer in Houston, don't lose hope," Burrows said. "There's always a chance, even after this many years, that the case can be solved."
Police haven't released a motive in the case but we've learned that Lankford and Rawls knew each other and both worked at Memorial Hermann Southwest.