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ITHACA, N.Y. (WHCU) — Ithaca Police are releasing new details about a cold case.
Deputy Chief Vincent Monticello says David Malcom was found dead at the Red Cross Shelter in February 1987. His death was declared a homicide, and investigators believed an unnamed male associate was the culprit. That person has now officially been ruled out as a suspect, and IPD now say forensic evidence points them to the estranged boyfriend of a teenaged girl at the shelter.
Police say Malcom, who was 26, died while protecting the girl. The boyfriend, whose identity is not being released, died in 2019. In a recent meeting with Malcom’s family that included both Monticello and Tompkins County District Attorney Matt Van Houten, the pair apologized to family members “that law enforcement was unable to solve this homicide when it happened and the number of years it took to provide them with answers.”
Monticello tells WHCU the case will soon close.