An Oregon man was ordered Friday to spend half a century behind bars for murdering an Anchorage teenager in a 1978 cold case.
Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson handed down Donald McQuade’s 50-year prison term in the death of 16-year-old Shelley Connolly, according to the Alaska Department of Law.
A jury found McQuade, now 67, guilty of first-degree murder in the case in December, after genetic genealogy led to his arrest in 2019. The trial was delayed by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
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According to a Friday statement from the Department of Law, evidence was collected from Connolly’s body in her killing and suspected rape after she was found along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage.
At trial, McQuade’s defense said that the DNA was the only evidence prosecutors had against him. But jurors rejected that argument, and on Friday the judge weighed in on McQuade’s actions.
“In his sentencing remarks Judge Peterson prioritized the seriousness and circumstances of the crime, the harm to the victim and her family, and the need to emphasize community condemnation,” prosecutors wrote. “Judge Peterson noted that Mr. McQuade had lived a full life and had watched his children grow into adulthood, a privilege that Shelley Connolly and her family were denied.”
On Friday, prosecutors thanked the Alaska State Troopers who investigated the case for 45 years, as well as the state Scientific Crime Detection Lab and the Gresham Police Department in Oregon.
Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Chris here.
