COLD CASE | DNA evidence ID’s man from West Virginia as Canadian teen’s killer

PUTNAM COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Canadian authorities announced on Tuesday a 1975 cold case with ties to our region has been solved by DNA evidence.

According to Putnam County Prosecutor Mark Sorsaia, DNA evidence has identified Franklin Maywood Romine as the man who raped and murdered Sharron Prior, 16, 45 years ago.

Romine’s body was exhumed from a cemetery in West Virginia in May for DNA testing. That DNA linked him to the crime.

Sorsaia said Romine died in 1982 and was buried in Frazier Bottoms in Putnam County -- hundreds of miles from the Canadian crime scene.

Sorsaia said the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office was contacted several months ago by Canadian authorities about the man’s body. Sorsaia explained that evidence was collected from the clothing gathered from the scene where Prior’s body was found.

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