Dead Ohio business owner identified as wife's killer in 1998 cold case
MAIDENWATER SPRING, Utah (WKRC) - Investigators have named a woman's husband as her killer in a 1998 cold case, four years after her remains were identified.
Lina Reyes-Geddes' body was discovered by police in April of '98 along an interstate highway in Utah.
It was inside a sleeping bag bound with duct tape and rope, wrapped in a carpet, and covered with plastic.
However, it wasn't until 2018 that the body was found to be Reyes-Geddes'.
A photo released by Utah state investigators, who took over the case after it had been closed and reopened, matched one that was added to an updated missing persons file in Youngstown, Ohio.
Reyes-Geddes and her now-deceased husband, Edward Geddes, were both Youngstown residents, and Geddes had owned a business there.
A relative traveled from Mexico to Utah to provide a DNA sample that allowed investigators to identify the body.
Four years later, several swabs collected from family members allowed officers to finally create a DNA profile that matched the samples found on the rope tied around Reyes-Geddes' body.
Geddes had previously been named as a suspect in his wife's murder after he failed to report her as missing. He was found dead in Nevada in 2001 from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police mentioned that solving the case would not have been possible with advanced modern technology, as DNA samples from the rope had been collected before, but because of the small amount, past tests were unable to match it with Geddes.
"It goes to show the science of where we're at with DNA," said Utah Department of Public Safety Agent Brian Davis. "It's very, very fulfilling to be a part of that [solved case] and the people coming together."
Davis did say he is unsure why the two were in Utah at the time, and that if Geddes were alive, he would absolutely file murder charges against him.
