The Baton Rouge Police Department has made an arrest in a 1987 cold case, after DNA evidence found on the cord used to bind the victimโs hands led them to a suspect in Alabama.
Thomas L. Klotz, a local radio station employee, was found on April 18, 1987, by the cleaning staff in his hotel room at the Red Carpet Inn on South Acadian Thruway with multiple stab wounds and his arms tied behind his back with a nylon cord, police said. Klotz, who was from Fort Wayne, Indiana, was in town for several weeks working as a jingle writer for radio stations WJBO and WFMF
Not enough evidence was found in 1987 to create a suspect profile. The cord along with other pieces of evidence were kept by the police until 2011, when they were submitted for DNA analysis at the ถถา๕h State Police Lab.
In 2019, the lab retested the cord and was able to create a profile for 62-year-old Sean Atkinson, resulting in a DNA warrant being issued. Atkinson was located in Mobile, Alabama. However, the detective working in the Cold Case Unit was transferred, and Klotzโs murder case went dormant again, the arrest warrant said.
Last year police reopened the case, obtained another warrant, and matched Atkinson with the national DNA database.
Atkinson was arrested in Mobile and is currently being booked in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison for second-degree murder.