Bartholomew County man linked to 1988 murder of California woman

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Police say a man who lived and died in Bartholomew County is behind the 1988 murder of a California mom.

Investigators with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department say Warren Robinson was Diane Dahn's neighbor when she died.

The San Diego woman was found stabbed to death on May 2, 1988, in her Santee, Calif. home after not showing up for work.

At the time, detectives were not able to figure out who killed her. Investigators searched for several years without any suspect.

Then in 2010, a single hair that had been found in Diane's hand after her death was processed into the system. It didn't return any hits until 2020.

Extensive testing led investigators to connect Robertson to the woman's death.

“In the end, nine trees were constructed with almost 1,300 individuals connected to the suspect via either marriage or blood,” Senior Crime Intelligence Analyst Jeff Vandersip told KGTV, a sister station of WRTV.

Although the DNA doesn't show why Diane was killed, the news still brings her family some peace.

"I didn't think anything was ever going to come of this, I thought I myself was going to go to my grave not knowing," said Victoria Danh-Minter, Dahn's sister.

"The answers that my family received ... it's closure," said Mark Beyer, Dahn's son.

Warren Robertson died in November 1999 in a Bartholomew county house fire.

WRTV previously reported he died from smoke inhalation.

KGTV Meteorologist/MMJ Leah Pezzetti contributed to this report.