Forty years after the brutal murder of UTA student Terri McAdams, investigators credit advanced technology and investigative genetic genealogy – which combines crime scene DNA with genealogical research – for the breakthrough that identified her killer.

“We finally get to provide answers that the department wanted to provide for nearly 40 years,” Arlington Police Chief Al Jones said in a press conference.

Investigators say they finally connected DNA to a suspect named Bernard Sharp, who police say committed a double murder and killed himself about nine months after his attack on McAdams.

Police say McAdams was brutally beaten, sexually assaulted and killed in her fiancé’s Arlington apartment on Valentine’s Day in 1985. She was 22 years old and the oldest of three sisters. 

“She was feisty and fun, and she truly loved life,” sister Karen Hooper said. “To know her was to love her. As I stand here today, I know that she and my mom and dad are smiling down on this miraculous moment.”

Years of investigating led to dead ends in the case until Arlington detectives and the FBI reopened it in 2021, using a new technique called “investigative genetic genealogy.”

“IGG, as we call it, combines unidentified crime scene DNA with meticulous genealogy research and the use of historical public records to identify new leads,” said Chad Yarbrough, a special agent with the FBI Dallas Office.

Investigators say genealogists were able to track down a distant relative, whose DNA proved Sharp was the killer.

ARLINGTON POLICE DEPARTMENT

“She had gone into her fiancé’s apartment,” said Karin Anderson, the host of The Reporter’s Notebook Podcast. “He was out of town at the time, and she made him a Valentine’s Day cake, a heart-shaped cake, and chatted a little bit that night on the phone with her sister. After she hung up, an intruder broke into the apartment and brutally attacked her. It was devastating.” 

Arlington police say no charges will be filed because Sharp is deceased.