Lynn Dejac was an American woman from Buffalo, New York.
On February 13, 1993, Lynn had a heated argument with her boyfriend at a bar after she found out he had hired a private investigator to spy on her. The next day, when she returned home, she discovered her 13-year-old daughter, Crystallynn Girard, dead. She had been strangled, and an autopsy showed there was some cocaine in her system.
Lynn was arrested and accused of second-degree murder, even though there was no physical evidence linking her to the crime. The only evidence was from her boyfriend, Dennis Donohue, who testified against her after being promised immunity, and from an ex-convict, Wayne Hudson, who said Lynn had confessed to him.
Lynn was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Thirteen years later, detectives reopened the case while looking into other similar unsolved crimes. They found that the four women who had been killed in the same way had all been in contact with Dennis Donohue, and their bodies were found in the same condition. DNA testing showed that Donohue’s DNA was at the crime scene.
Lynn Dejac became the first woman ever to be cleared of murder charges based on DNA evidence.
