Walter E. Ellis Brought Down By DNA and Shoe Leather?

There are different ways to fall. One is to literally stumble. Another is to get caught and brought down by the police. An example of the latter is the arrest of 49 year-old Walter E. Ellis. Using "shoe leather" and DNA, police in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have arrested a suspect they believe is responsible for serial killings of nine women over 21 years.

Police claim they have matched Walter E. Ellis with DNA found on the bodies of nine women killed from 1986 to 2007. According to Police Chief Edward A. Flynn, "continuing advances in DNA technology have enabled us to link these homicide cases, and it was good work pursuing numerous leads that led to the arrest of the suspect."
Police searched the state DNA data bank of 125,000 people and a national data bank of 6 million people. Cops Get DNA . After executing a search warrant on Ellis home, he is charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide according to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. More charges are likely to follow. Eight of the women were apparently prostitutes. One was a runaway allegedly "involved in the drug trade."

Of course, Walter E. Ellis is to be considered innocent unless otherwise proven in a court of law. However, contrast his fall to that of a female hiker who was hiking the romantic Billy Goat Trail along the Potomac River. "And the story is he proposed to her just prior to her falling," said Captain Walker. (After she said yes, she lost her footing and fell onto a large, jagged rock.) Fortunately, the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue and a U.S. Park Police Helicopter rescued the woman, according to Sgt. Ken Burchell, a U.S. Park Police pilot. Like Ellis, the young lady is presumed to be innocent until after her honeymoon.