Authorities identify convicted killer as suspect in 1997 double homicide [Updated]

A felon serving time in state prison for killing of a North Hollywood woman in 2001 has been linked through DNA evidence to a double homicide four years earlier in the same neighborhood, authorities said today.

Rafael Martinez was convicted in the 2001 fatal stabbing of Luz Nieves in her home. He was in prison when detectives submitted DNA evidence from the double slaying of Nancy Boehm, 57, and her mentally impaired son, Shawn, 23.

The victims were found in separate bedrooms of their home in the 5700 block of Riverton Avenue in North Hollywood.

[Updated at 2 p.m.: Police believe that Nancy Boehm was selling drugs to supplement her income and that the killing was narcotics-related.

DNA was collected at the time, but testing found no match.

"During that time, we did not possess the technology that was necessary to conduct a thorough investigation," said Lt. Alan Hamilton of the LAPD's North Hollywood Division.

The case was revisited a few months ago at the behest of Det. Thomas Townsend, who asked that a DNA analyst to look over the case for possible clues. DNA collected from under Nancy Boehm's fingernails was retested, and police got a partial match with Martinez.

That partial match, combined with the proximity of the 1997 and 2001 killings, led them to Martinez, Townsend said.

"Although it is often described as a cold case, we've stayed with this case because of ... the particularly brutal nature of this murder," Hamilton said. "You basically have two people in a house and they're basically slaughtered."

Martinez is still in the custody of the state Department of Corrections and is expected to be transferred to a Los Angeles jail to be charged in the near future.]

Neighbors said Nancy Boehm was an assembly worker for General Motors until she was laid off several years before her death. Shawn Boehm, who had played basketball in the Special Olympics, was often seen riding his bike or walking along the street, neighbors said at the time.

-- Raja Abdulrahim and Andrew Blankstein

Comments

[marley]

Excute him and fast, we cant afford to keep him locked up.

[The Doc]

Partial does is not mean exact match. Any prosecutor presenting this case in my courtroom would be in trouble. I would either throw the case out or I would make the prosecutor keep testing until he/she brought an exact match to court as evidence. Grandstanding on television, saying that the LAPD has solved a cold case murder based on "partial" DNA evidence gives the defense enough for reasonable doubt. Not to mention, the possibility of setting the city up for a lawsuit due to the LAPDs rush to judgment. DNA is an exact science; there are no partial matches in DNA. Either it is or it isn't an exact match. Not maybe or could be a match. Now here's a question: How many innocent people have gone to prison because of a partial DNA match?

[TheBigPicture]

To answer Doc's question, who cares how many innocent people went to prison because of partial DNA matches...These people who have been acquitted because DNA proved they didn't commit that one crime are normally career criminals with multiple documented arrests and hundreds of crimes that they committed but weren't caught. If a few totally innocents get ground up in the cogs of justice, well, I'm good with that...We're only human, we're not perfect...

[Justice Lopez]

They should TEST ALL DNA EVIDENCE now to bring peace and justice to homicide and sexual assault victims!

[Big Deal]

Have they charged the guy with the murder? If the victims were involved in narcotics sales they made themselves more vulnerable to being attacked and killed. I agree with one reader who states it was "grandstanding" by the police. Save this type of news for the innocent people who were not involed in illegal activities when victimized.

[mel]

Wow its sad when you see how society thinks. Rafael Martinez killed my mother in 2001 she was Luz Nieves and just because she sold drugs it doesn't make her a bad person or her murder unimportant. She didn't ask to die and neither did we want to lose our mother. So I hope this man is convicted for these other murders and gets what he deserves.