Candy Rogers Raped & Murdered By John Reigh Hoff In 1959, DNA Solves Case

 

DNA evidence helped Washington State police officers to finally crack the 62-year-old cold case involving the brutal murder of a 9-year-old girl who was selling Camp Fire Girl mints.

Candy Rogers went missing in Spokane on March 6, 1959, and was found raped and strangled to death with her own clothing two weeks later.

Through the help of modern DNA evidence, police announced on Friday that Rogers's murderer was John Reigh Hoff, a US Army deserter who committed suicide in 1970.

DNA evidence recently matched John Reigh Hoff to the crime. Hoff's sister had known Rogers.

The army deserter killed himself in 1970.

Cathie Hoff volunteered a DNA sample in September that helped cops lead to her father as the killer.

Police unearthed his body and found he was a match.

The big breakthrough came after police conducted DNA testing of a well-preserved semen sample found on Rogers's clothing, linking it to three brothers, John Reigh, Andrew and Terry Allen Hoff.

John Reigh had a daughter, Cathie, who then volunteered to submit a DNA sample in September that showed John Reigh Hoff was likely the killer.

Later that month, cops unearthed Hoff's grave to test his DNA, which conclusively indicated that the DNA found on Rogers was Hoff's, police said.

Cathie said she was angry when police told her that her father was the murderer.

She was just nine years old when Hoff killed himself.

Spokane Major Crimes Detective Zac Storment called the Candy Rogers case the Mount Everest of cold cases.

Police uncovered her body in the woods. They concluded that the girl had been raped and then strangled to death with her own clothing.

The Camp Fire Girl treats was the only thing found during a town-wide search in the days after Rogers went missing.

During the initial days of the search for Rogers, a helicopter crashed and three airmen died.

Rogers's cousin, Joanne Poss, cried as she learned the truth. 'I feel like candy's loss was just a horrible loss. She was just so cute'

Candy Rogers was an only child, and her parents have since passed away.