DNA Under Fingernails Solves 29-Year-Old Michigan Murder Case

Deborah Kennedy’s fight for her life left behind the clue Southfield detectives say finally cracked the case: DNA under her fingernails. Police say that evidence sat in storage for 29 years before new testing helped tie Robert Covington, 58, to Kennedy’s 1997 killing in her Southfield home on Lee Baker Drive.

Kennedy, 40, worked at the GM Tech Center in Warren and was found stabbed to death after a coworker asked police to check on her when she did not show up for work. Investigators found multiple stab wounds and no signs of forced entry, and Chief Elvin Barren said Kennedy had fought back against her attacker. That struggle mattered because it preserved biological evidence that earlier technology could not fully use.

Southfield police reopened the case in June 2024 after Detective Brian Weeks asked to review cold cases, and Kennedy’s cousin, Reggie Daniel, also pushed for renewed attention. Barren said the department focused on cold cases with DNA because they have a higher probability of being solved, a calculation that paid off when old evidence was retested with newer forensic methods.

Police announced on April 14, 2026 that they had arrested Covington, who they say lived across from Kennedy with his wife and mother-in-law, both now deceased. Covington was taken into custody in Royal Lakes, Illinois, on March 29, extradited to Michigan on April 8, and charged with felony murder and open murder. He was denied bond at arraignment and remains in the Oakland County Jail, with a probable cause conference set for April 23 in 52nd District Court.

The forensic breakthrough did not stop with the DNA. Police said fingerprint evidence was retested as well, and a news report said a fingerprint lifted from a credit card at the scene matched Covington. That combination of old evidence and new technology transformed a case that had gone cold for nearly three decades into a live prosecution.

For Kennedy’s family, the arrest brought movement in a case that had lingered through most of their adult lives. Daniel said the family had feared they might never see the day the case moved forward, and another report said no one in the family had returned to the home since the murder. Police said they may never know why Kennedy was killed, but prosecutors still have to prove in court that Covington was the killer and that the evidence from the house on Lee Baker Drive holds up beyond a reasonable doubt.