DNA Evidence Leads to Arrest of Anthony Joseph Palma in Case of Missing 8 Year Old Kirsten Hatfield Who Vanished from Bedroom in 1997 in Oklahoma

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT … ARREST FINALLY MADE IN 1997 MISSING PERSONS CASE. 

8 year old Kirsten Hatfield disappeared from her home in Midwest City, OK one night in May 1997. A former neighbor of the girl, 56-year-old Anthony Joseph Palma, was arrested Monday and charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder. He is being held without bail. According to reports, Police said when Kirsten Hatfield went missing, the second-grader’s bedroom window was cracked and her underwear was found in the backyard. Recently the investigator assigned to the case realized that some evidence in the case was never tested. Thanks to improvements in DNA evidence, Anthony Joseph Palma was tracked down and volunteered a DNA sample. Low and behold, there was a match.  Anthony Joseph Palma lived 2 doors down from Kirsten Hatfield and amazingly still does. Could there finally be justice for Kirsten? However, sadly, her body has never been found.

Kirsten Hatfield

Authorities were led to Palma after a new investigator assigned to the case last June realized the FBI or the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation had never tested some of the evidence, Clabes said.

Using DNA technology that is more advanced than it was in 1997, lab technicians discovered blood from the window sill and the girl’s underwear came from an unknown male, he said. Investigators ran that DNA through a national database and didn’t find a match.

Authorities then tracked down about 10 men who’d previously been questioned and asked for DNA samples, Clabes said.

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FOX News 8 - DNA evidence, police in an Oklahoma City suburb arrested a man in an 18-year-old child abduction case.

Thanks to DNA evidence, police in an Oklahoma City suburb arrested a man in an 18-year-old child abduction case, authorities said Tuesday.

Kirsten Hatfield, 8, disappeared from her home in Midwest City one night in May 1997.

Police said the second-grader’s bedroom window was cracked and her underwear was found in the backyard, according to CNN affiliate KOKH.

The child has never been found, Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said Tuesday at a news conference.

A former neighbor of the girl, 56-year-old Anthony Joseph Palma, was arrested Monday and charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder. Authorities filed the murder charge because they believe Kirsten is dead, Clabes said.

Authorities were led to Palma after a new investigator assigned to the case last June realized the FBI or the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation had never tested some of the evidence, Clabes said.

Using DNA technology that is more advanced than it was in 1997, lab technicians discovered blood from the window sill and the girl’s underwear came from an unknown male, he said. Investigators ran that DNA through a national database and didn’t find a match.

Arrest Made 18 Years After Disappearance of 8-Year-Old Oklahoma Girl Kirsten Hatfield.

The State Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab found a DNA match to Palma in July, putting its odds of certainty at 263 sextillion to 1, according to the affidavit.

“The evidence shows that Kirsten may have been targeted by Palma for sexual assault,” Miller wrote in the affidavit. “It is likely that Palma has been motivated to stay in the same home to conceal evidence of the crime and/or the location of Kristen’s body.”

State corrections records show that Palma — who has lived at the same Midwest City address since 1991 — was convicted of assault and/or battery with a dangerous weapon in the early 1980s and was released from prison in 1986. Details of that conviction weren’t immediately available.