35-year-old murder case to get fresh look at class reunion

Anne Arundel investigators will be looking for new leads in a 35-year-old homicide case at a class reunion this weekend in Bowie.

They hope attendees of Saturday night's get-together for Bowie High School's Class of 1973 will talk about the circumstances surrounding the killing of classmate Donna Dustin, whose body was found in a wooded, swampy area of Anne Arundel County.

Unlike most in the class, Donna's youth was tragically cut short after graduation.

The last confirmed sighting of her was at 1:30 a.m. Nov. 17, 1973.

Driving her new Chevrolet Malibu, she had just dropped off a young man at his home in Bowie. They had been at her house (her parents were visiting relatives in Florida), and had "made love and smoked drugs," according to a published report.

The next time Donna was seen, later that day at around 10:30 a.m., she was a corpse, beaten savagely to death off Meyers Station Road near Bowie Race Track, an after-hours hangout for local teens. Her body was found on the Anne Arundel side of the woods.

David Cordle, an investigator with Anne Arundel County's State's Attorney's Office, will speak at the reunion, asking attendees to tell him anything they saw or heard about Donna that Nov. 17.

Reunions, Mr. Cordle said, "bring a lot of people together who normally don't come together. If you ask (them) the right questions, maybe you'll get the kind of answers you need."

Mr. Cordle and his friend and colleague, Capt. David Waltemeyer, who heads the Anne Arundel Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division, have been investigating the case for more than 10 years. During this time, they've taken two dozen DNA samples from people connected to that night. Some of the samples were forcibly obtained under court order.

Neither investigator would say if Donna was sexually assaulted.

But Capt. Waltemeyer offered: "DNA was collected from the crime scene and the autopsy."

Donna may or may not have gone to a wild party at a Bowie house that morning, after dropping off her new boyfriend, he and Mr. Cordle said.

Both investigators think more than one person was involved in the slaying and that Donna probably personally knew her killer or killers.

Post-mortem tests on Donna showed she had a high blood-alcohol content.

With every passing year, DNA testing becomes more refined. And that's why the case, more than three decades old, still contains a glimmer of hope.

Some DNA samples from the case are now being tested with a new type of technology, Mr. Cordle said.

In the meantime, in a letter that will be posted at the reunion, Donna's parents have joined the investigators in asking former classmates to speak out if they know anything about their daughter's death.

That Nov. 17, a Florida police officer showed up at their doorstep with a piece of paper. It was a note that said their daughter had been beaten to death. In shock, they immediately packed their car and drove nonstop back to Bowie.

Mrs. Dustin remembers a hit song that kept playing on the radio during that long, depressing trek up Interstate 95: Charlie Rich's "The Most Beautiful Girl." Its lyrics went, "Hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world? And if you did was she crying, crying?"

The Dustins think their daughter was with a boy or man who "wanted to go further" than their daughter wished. And, pumped up on dope and booze, he got enraged and beat her mercilessly, perhaps unable to stop. Others probably were standing around and saw it happen.

Donna's parents arrived back home Nov. 18, greeted relatives who had come to their Bowie home, then drove over to the main Anne Arundel police station in Millersville. Donna's body was identified by a girlfriend who had been staying with her that week while her parents were away. Neither parent could look at the body.

Their only living child is their son, Allen, who was five years younger than Donna. Through Allen, they have four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

According to Mary Nusser, who's coordinating Saturday's reunion at the Comfort Inn, 39 men and women in the 700-plus member Class of '73 are deceased.

"Three were murdered, three committed suicide and others died in car crashes, overdosed or died of alcoholism. Three died while waiting for transplants or after getting transplants, three from breast cancer and three from AIDS," Ms. Nusser said.