Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The bodies of two convicted murderers are being exhumed today as part of a Florida murder investigation dating back more than 50 years.

About two weeks ago, a Florida detective mad the request to exhume the bodies of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, who were featured in the iconic true crime book "In Cold Blood."

Sarasota County Sheriff's detective Kimberly McGath says she believes there is evidence linking Smith and Hickock to the 1959 murders of a family of four in a rural community south of Sarasota. The men visited Florida after the Kansas mass murders.

McGath says the Walker family's killer left behind his DNA on a preserved piece of clothing. Officials say if Smith and Hickock are exhumed, the DNA can be compared.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation obtained a search warrant today and the bodies are being exhumed by their Crime Scene Response Team for DNA testing.

Smith and Hickock were convicted in Kansas of murdering Herb Clutter, his wife and their son and daughter, also in 1959. They were later executed. The murders were the subject of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood."