DNA evidence has allowed Racine Police to make an arrest in the previously unsolved 2000 murder of Linda Fields. 66-year-old Lucas Alonso of Zion, Illinois is now charged with Fields’ murder.
The body 37-year-old Fields was found under a tree along Lake Avenue in Racine on Feb. 24, 2000, under a tree along Lake Avenue in Racine.
“What we have to talk about is something that the family would have liked to have gotten behind them. But this allows us to bring some finality,” said Racine Police Chief Maurice Robinson at Wednesday’s press conference.
Robinson said DNA evidence allowed them to arrest Alonso. He was arrested on March 2 in Racine where he works.
The case had gone cold in the more than 22 years since Field’s murder. The medical examiner at the time concluded she had been strangled. But the DNA found at the scene – belonging to one man – did not trigger any matches in state and national DNA databases at the time.
Robinson said that the DNA analyst said the odds of the DNA found on Fields matching a randomly selected person are “one in one-quadrillion.”
According to a criminal complaint, Alonso told police after his arrest that he met Fields at a bar and they later had sex outdoors along Lake Avenue. He admitted to police that he strangled her multiple times but claims she was alive when he left her.
Fields’ family was also present at Wednesday’s press conference.
“Her spirit and her influence are very much a part of our lives. And for me, it’s the reason that I live my life the way that I do,” said Carl Fields, Linda’s son.
The Racine Police Department released the following press release about the case.