CALEDONIA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Officials hosted a news conference Monday morning after they say an arrest was made in an almost three-decade-old cold case out of Caledonia Township.
Watch the news conference here:
On Friday, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office announced that 64-year-old Florida resident Garry Dean Artman was brought into custody in Mississippi in connection to the murder of Sharon Hammack in 1996.
We’re told the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office authorized murder charges as well as a first-degree sexual assault charge.
Hammack was sexually assaulted and killed by strangulation near Kraft Avenue and 76th Street on Oct. 3, 1996, according to the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Michelle Lajoye-Young says advancements in DNA technology through Identifiers International made a break in the case possible.
This comes after Prosecutor Chris Becker says the Metro Cold Case Team reviewed the case eight years prior but the technology had not yet advanced to the point that further progress was possible.
Becker adds the methods used to identify the suspect may later help resolve other cases in the county and the U.S.
Investigators were able to link DNA found on Hammack's body to another, similar killing being investigated out of Maryland. In 2006, Maryland State Police were investigating the homicide of another woman who was raped and stabbed to death. Police discovered that the victim was in Ontario, California shortly before her body turned up in Maryland. Artman was also cited by police in Ontario, CA, around the same time the victim was seen there, and shortly before her body turned up in Maryland, bearing Artman's DNA.
Artman also has an extensive history of criminal sexual conduct. He previously served an 11-year sentence with the Michigan Department of Corrections for first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Artman is expected to be extradited to Michigan soon.
