DNA Evidence Leads to Arrest

Amped up, Detective Brittney Able made a late-night drive from Jacksonville to the  Tallahassee Police Department. While she had spent a day with a killer, she was not rattled  by the experience so much as she was energized.

The man, whom some might describe as a monster, had been convicted of manslaughter in the 1979 killing of a teenage girl in New York. Able had found him, looked into his eyes and spoken to him. The predator was now Able’s prey, ensnared by his own DNA.

Twenty-six years following another killing, Able did not want James Branner’s daughters to wait another minute to hear the news. The man she believed to be their father’s killer was alive and in custody. His name was Alan Lefferts.

Narrowing the search

Able’s look into Branner’s death began in 2020. Often, she would pore over cold case files after completing her regular duties for a day. Some cases dated back just a few years, while other files had been collecting dust for decades.

“I’ve always, since being a teenager, wanted to investigate,” Able said. “I’ve always had an interest in cold cases. I’ve reviewed several over the years. It’s just always been an interest of mine, one that would keep me driving forward.”

Most of the files suggested no avenues for renewed investigation. The Branner killing was an exception.

On its face, the 1996 case appeared to be one that could be easily solved. Multiple witnesses had provided descriptions of a suspect. The hotel room had been reserved for “Jim and Al Branner.” Investigators had taken meticulous notes. Crime scene technicians had impounded or documented nearly every item from the hotel room. Evidence included a bloody handprint and a washcloth sure to contain the suspect’s DNA.

“Other than the beds, we had everything,” Able said. “It was really just a fantastic case looking at it from an investigative standpoint. I saw that they had exhausted all their leads at the time, but once again, we knew we had a suspect’s DNA. We just needed to figure out who he was.”

The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) was new in 1996 and did not yield a match for the DNA obtained from the washcloth. Investigators ran the sample against the database year after year to no avail.

New technologies led Able back to the DNA. Genealogical testing companies including Ancestry and 23andMe had opened up a new avenue for investigators. They might not be able to get an exact match for a sample, but if anyone on the suspect’s family tree had used one of these services to learn more about their own ancestry, police could use familial DNA matches to narrow down their search.

Armed with this information, Able sent DNA found at the scene to Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based company that provides DNA phenotyping services for law enforcement organizations. In return, she received an extensive list of partial matches.

Following six years as a member of the Violent Crimes Unit, Able was transferred to TPD’s Criminal Intelligence Unit, where she wasn’t bogged down by a stream of cases. For the next year, she spent her free time at the station focused on the near-matches and searching for a link to Branner or even Tallahassee.

After coming across Lefferts’ name, she started looking into his history. “Al” had been part of the registration for Branner’s hotel room. Lefferts had already been convicted of manslaughter in a case where the M.O. aligned with Branner’s cause of death — asphyxiation.

“Mr. Lefferts was not from here,” Able said. “He was traveling through, so there were no documented contacts with him. There was really no way to know he was ever here. I think that was the big thing for police at the time. He was kind of living a transient lifestyle. It’s hard to identify someone that you don’t know exists.”

Detective Brittany Able of the Tallahassee Police Department was on hand for the arrest of a suspect in a 27-year-old murder case. Photo by Dave Barfield

Man with many faces

Unraveling the life of Alan Lefferts was a difficult task. He has used an alias, Charles McLaughlin, for much of his adult life and presented a troubling history.

New York’s Poughkeepsie Journal archives chronicle Lefferts’ violent history. On a Friday night in 1979, Lefferts picked up 15-year-old Mary Mabee hitchhiking near her mother’s Scotchtown, New York, home. Days later, Mabee’s body was discovered in the woods after Lefferts apparently alerted passing motorists. Police interrogation yielded a confession. Lefferts, then identified as McLaughlin, had strangled the girl.

He was convicted on manslaughter charges and spent about nine years in a New York prison under the false name, according to a 1990 edition of The Palm Beach Post.

Lefferts was paroled in 1989, fled New York and traveled to Florida. FBI agents apprehended Lefferts without incident at a Fort Lauderdale Greyhound Bus station. The Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and St. Lucie News Tribune reported the arrest, referring to Lefferts as a “serial rapist-murderer.”

These nearly identical reports ran on Feb. 27, 1990, more than six years before the killing of Branner.

Jim and Al

Branner checked into the Prince Murat Hotel on Monday, July 1, 1996, under the names “Jim and Al Branner.” The Tallahassee Democrat reported that he told the manager he was waiting for a friend.

That night, a middle-aged, white man between 5 feet,
7 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches with light-colored shoulder-length hair and a mustache reportedly asked passersby to light his cigarette outside Branner’s hotel room. The following afternoon, a housekeeper entered the room and saw blood on the bed. The bathroom door was locked. The hotel manager unlocked the door and pulled back the shower curtain far enough to see a man’s legs.

Branner was a father and local laborer who moved to Tallahassee from Virginia, likely looking for a fresh start. Lefferts was just passing through. Why their paths crossed that night is unknown. Able cannot speak to the suspect’s motives or other aspects of the case until the trial has commenced, but she conceded that it can be difficult to reconstruct events from so many years ago. At the time of this reporting, a trial date has not been set.

“A lot of records have been destroyed,” Able said. “Companies don’t keep them. If there was ever additional evidence, it’s usually gone by this point, and unfortunately, witnesses. A few of our witnesses are deceased. It definitely can be difficult.”

Despite these challenges, Able is confident that the physical evidence she has uncovered will lead to a conviction.

Initially, Lefferts’ efforts to avoid police made him difficult to locate, but eventually Jacksonville police and Able found the suspect living in Baker County. On May 31, 2022, Able and the officers from the Baker County Sheriff’s Office apprehended Lefferts at his home and took him into custody. He has been charged with first-degree murder.

“It was almost surreal to be sitting in the interview room with him knowing, ‘Oh my god. After all these years we are here; we’re speaking to you,’” Able said. “Just knowing that we were one step closer to being able to provide the family closure. We are here. We’re talking to him. He’s alive. This is it. We did it.”

Parabon Nanolabs

Snapshot DNA Analysis:

▪ Genetic Genealogy: Uses relative DNA

▪ DNA Phenotyping: Predicts appearance and ancestry

▪ Kinship Inference: Determine kinship between DNA samples

Lefferts was paroled in 1989, fled New York and traveled to Florida. FBI agents apprehended Lefferts without incident at a Fort Lauderdale Greyhound Bus station. The Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and St. Lucie News Tribune reported the arrest, referring to Lefferts as a “serial rapist-murderer.”