A convicted sex offender from Wisconsin who was indicted last year on a homicide charge in the 1986 cold-case strangulation death of a...
A convicted sex offender from Wisconsin who was indicted last year on a homicide charge in the 1986 cold-case strangulation death of a woman has written a letter to a local television station, claiming that his rights have been violated.
In the four-page handwritten letter addressed to WBAY Local 5, Lou Archie Griffin accuses police and prosecutors of violating his 'civil rights and constitutional rights,' and ignoring DNA evidence belonging to a 'third party.'
Griffin was charged in October 2020 of first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the killing of 22-year-old Lisa Holstead, whose body was found in-August 1986 in a Green Bay-area swamp a few miles from the suspect's home at the time.
Murder suspect Lou Archie Griffin, 65 (left), has sent a letter to Wisconsin's WBAY station, raising questions about the charges against him in connection to the 1986 cold-case killing of Lisa Holstead (right)
This screenshot show the first page of Griffin's four-page handwritten letter, which accuses police of falsely charging him with homicide and violating his constitutional rights
According to a criminal complaint, investigators trailed Griffin in Racine and obtained DNA from his discarded beer cans and a cigarette butt, which came back a match to DNA found on Holstead's body.
Writing about himself in the third person, Griffin claims in his missive that police falsely accused him of murder 'and made false statements to [obtain] a false complaint.'
He goes on to allege that during an autopsy on Holstead's body, the medical examiner recovered sperm belonging to another man who was not her boyfriend or Griffin, but that 'third party' has not been identified.
Griffin then lists a series of questions he would like answered, including about the 'unidentified NDA,' the whereabouts of Holstead's blouse that was purportedly used in her strangulation, and about the timing of his DNA discovery 35 years after the fact.
The jailed suspect also raises an issue with his $1million bond, noting that he is a 65-year-old 'who has ties to the community with family ties for more than 40 years or more.'
Griffin's arrest in October 2020 came after investigators obtained DNA from his discarded beer cans and a cigarette butt, which came back a match to DNA on Holstead's body
In his letter, the convicted sex offender (pictured in court) claims that DNA belonging to another man was found on the victim's body, but that person has not been identified
Griffin closes his letter on an optimistic note, telling the news outlet: 'I am very sure that I will interview with you in the near future,' but as a pre-condition he says reporters must pose his questions to Brown County District Attorney David Lasee on camera.
DailyMail.com on Tuesday reached out to Lasee's office for comment and was awaiting a reply.
Holstead’s murder, Green Bay’s oldest cold case, puzzled investigators for nearly 35 years but a breakthrough was found in September 2020 thanks to forensic genetic genealogy, police said.
Griffin had no connection to Holstead, a young mother, but investigators were able to identify him as the suspect by doing a ‘reverse family tree’ with DNA evidence recovered from the scene.
Holstead was a young mother who in August 1986 was possibly sexually assaulted and then murdered. She is pictured with her son, left and right
Holstead's body was found by construction workers floating in a Green Bay swamp (pictured)
Also known as reverse genealogy, the process involves researching a family tree from the past to the present to find a suspect's relatives, before narrowing down that list to the suspect.
Green Bay investigators sent a DNA sample from Holstead’s body to a testing company in 2018 and used that sample to create a profile of Holstead’s killer.
‘It came up with more genetic info than just what a crime lab could come up with. Then using that, we're able to identify the person's hair, where they're from, and using some of the common websites we identified some relatives,’ detective David Graf told reporters last fall.
Through the familial search, using characteristics from the suspect’s profile, and after discovering that Griffin had lived in Green Bay within a few miles of where Holstead was killed at the time of her death, police say they narrowed the search down to him.
Griffin has a history of violence against women, including strangulation, according to police.
He moved to Green Bay only a month prior to Holstead’s death after he was released on parole for second-degree child sexual assault.
Police said they believe Griffin sexually assaulted and then strangled Holstead to death with her own blouse.
A newspaper clipping from the 1986 is seen above , profiling Holstead's murder
Griffin initially denied knowing Holstead, police said, but when confronted with the DNA evidence he allegedly acknowledged that he must have slept with her but denied murdering her.
He told investigators he was high on cocaine and drank alcohol on the night of her death. He said he went to a bar, stopped at McDonald's and drove home, using a route near Holstead's last known location.
Holstead was found dead by construction workers on August 12, 1986 in a swampy marsh near Peat's Lake and Duck Creek.
The workers described to police they had spotted what appeared to be a hand sticking up out of the water. When they pulled their truck over to investigate further, they discovered a woman’s body, laying half-naked by the water’s edge.
Holstead had been reported missing just hours earlier. She was last seen alive by her boyfriend, John Sot, who said they had been driving home from a family gathering when they had an argument and she opened the door of vehicle and ran away.
The couple lived together, and her boyfriend told investigators she never made it home that night.
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