DNA from ‘chewing-gum survey' leads police to fugitive in 1976 murder

SEATTLE — DNA taken recently during a mock chewing-gum survey set up by police led police to a suspect in a 1976 cold case in Maine.

Detectives from Maine State Police, Augusta police and Seattle police arrested 63-year old fugitive Gary Sanford Raub Monday afternoon in Seattle’s University District.

Detectives said they found Raub sitting on the sidewalk in the 4500 block of University Way Northeast and arrested him without incident.

Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said Raub is charged with the death of 70-year-old Blanche Kimball, whose body was found inside her State Street home in Augusta on June 12, 1976.

Police said Kimball died from multiple stab wounds and her body was found by Augusta police after neighbors called to say she had not been seen for several days.

McCausland said both Maine and Augusta police investigated Kimball's death for the past 36 years.   Recent DNA taken during the mock survey led police to Raub, Maine's Press Herald reported.

Police said Raub knew Kimball and at one time had lived at her home.

Records show that Raub served time in a Washington state prison for third-degree rape in Clallam County in 1982.

Raub remains in the King County Jail pending extradition back to Maine.

KIRO