A 20 year old woman is found dead in her Wichita, KS apartment On a quiet Monday in October of 1989, the life of 20-year-old Krista Martin was tragically cut short in her Wichita, Kansas apartment. A concerned friend, prompted by a feeling he couldn't quite explain, went to check on her in the early morning hours of October 2nd. Inside her home at 506 S. Osage, he made a devastating discovery: Krista was found on her couch, fully clothed, having been beaten to death.
Investigators who responded to the scene found no signs of a break-in or burglary.
An autopsy would later reveal the grim details of her final moments; she had been sexually assaulted and died from a powerful blow to the back of her head with a blunt object. The weapon used in the attack was never found. In the initial stages of the investigation, police were unable to identify a suspect, and despite collecting and preserving DNA evidence from the sexual assault, the technological limitations of the era meant it yielded no immediate leads. The case grew cold, leaving Krista’s family with unanswered questions and a profound sense of loss for decades. Two weeks prior to her murder, a neighbor had reported a disturbance at Krista's apartment, witnessing two men outside and overhearing one ask the other, "Why did you have to hit her?" to which the man allegedly replied, "Because she's a woman and deserved it."
For 34 years, the case remained unsolved, a lingering shadow over the Wichita community. However, significant advancements in forensic science would eventually bring the truth to light. In 2020, the Wichita Police Department, in collaboration with the FBI, turned to investigative genetic genealogy to re-examine the DNA evidence that had been so carefully preserved. This modern technique allowed genealogists to build a family tree connected to the unknown DNA profile, leading them down a path that would ultimately point to one man.
In April 2023, investigators finally identified the person responsible for Krista Martin's murder: Paul Hart, a former resident of Wichita. The investigation revealed that Hart had died in a traffic collision in Memphis, Tennessee, in March of 1999 at the age of 33. To confirm their findings, detectives traveled to Arkansas and collected DNA samples from Hart's direct relatives, which solidified the link between him and the crime scene evidence. With this definitive match, the Sedgwick County District Attorney announced that had Paul Hart been alive, he would have been charged with the murder of Krista Martin. After more than three decades of uncertainty, the case was officially cleared, bringing a long-awaited, albeit bittersweet, sense of peace to Krista's surviving family.
