COLD CASE

Fingerprints, DNA Solve 38-Year-Old Murder of Iranian-Born College Student

After a friend of the victim asked local police in 2020 to take another look at the decades-old case, forensic evidence placed sex offender Bud Christensen at the crime scene.

The mysterious 1983 murder of an Iranian-born University of Nebraska student has been solved after forensic evidence was found to match a man on the state’s sex offender registry, the Omaha World-Herald reports. Bud Leroy Christensen, 67, was charged Thursday with the murder of Firozeh Dehghanpour, whose naked body had been found on Aug. 14th, 1983, under a bridge in a rural area, her throat cut, with multiple stab wounds to her body. Investigation into the decades-old case had been reopened in 2020 after an old friend of Dehghanpour urged local cop Sgt. Jim Doty to take another look. Retesting of evidence collected during the original investigation found DNA from a male, which due to a Nebraska law requiring convicted sex offenders to submit DNA for collection, was able to be matched to Christensen. Papers found at the crime scene also bore his fingerprints. Doty says he’s reached out to Dehghanpour’s brother, who still lives in the area. “Giving the family answers is the most rewarding part of being able to solve the case,” said Doty.