PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities in Yavapai County say they have solved a 40-year-old homicide case. Yavapai County Sheriff’s officials said Monday that DNA evidence is what ultimately led to them determining who shot and killed Michael E. Lee in 1980.
According to investigators, Lee was a 29-year-old iron worker from Indiana visiting Arizona. His body was found off a highway in an unincorporated area of Yavapai County on Oct. 21, 1980.
He had several gunshot wounds to the head. In 2018, results from a DNA test on cigarette butts from the scene indicated they belonged to David Ellsworth Widmer. Widmer died last year.
