JUSTICE

Kentucky Man Charged With Rape and Murder in 1994 Slaying of 69-Year-Old

Cops determined in 1994 that the woman, Gloria Hansell, had been strangled to death with an electrical cord attached to a box fan. Now, cops say they know who killed her.

The feds say they’ve finally arrested the man responsible for raping and fatally strangling a 69-year-old woman inside her Gary, Indiana, home nearly three decades ago. Gerald L. Smith, 60, now faces a murder and rape charge, the FBI’s Gang Response Investigative Team announced Tuesday. The feds say they’ve confirmed Smith’s DNA was found on the rape kit of Gloria Hansell, a widow who relied on an in-home oxygen machine. The slaying happened June 17, 1994, with Hansell’s assailant suspected of using a box fan’s electrical cord to strangle her to death. The case would go cold for 26 years, until the feds submitted evidence to be analyzed at an Indiana State Police laboratory in 2020. Those results finally came back.