DNA testing ordered in Spirko murder case

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

It’s a case that goes back nearly 45 years with a defendant who is almost 80 years old and claims he’s innocent. Now, he’s getting a chance that could help prove his claim.

Last week, Van Wert County Common Pleas Court Judge Martin D. Burchfield signed an order for new DNA testing in the case of John George Spirko Jr.

The results could help bring closure to the case, or raise new questions.

Spirko, 79, is serving life in prison for the 1982 abduction and murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, who served as postmistress in the tiny village of Elgin, in southeast Van Wert County.

The testing will be done at Spirko’s expense and Judge Burchfield’s order states duct tape and debris/hair samples found on the duct tape, a painter’s drop cloth found at the scene, a hunter’s knife, rope, cord and a piece of tarp, fingerprints and blood samples are all subject to testing. Virginia-based Bode Technology will do the testing. The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office’s Property Room is responsible for transporting the listed items via commercial carrier to Bode Technology.

“Bode shall consult with the Defendant regarding a course of testing, with the goal of analyzing any human DNA that can be collected from those items,” Judge Burchfield wrote in his order. “Defendant shall remain in communication with Bode throughout the DNA testing process to determine the order in which the items will be tested. Upon completion of DNA testing, Bode shall provide counsel for the Defendant and counsel for the State of Ohio with the complete results of testing, including but not limited to allelic charts, electropherograms, and any other underlying data related to testing in this matter. Upon request, Bode shall provide any underlying data necessary for analysis by probabilistic genotyping software.”

Spirko was originally sentenced to death but in 2008, then-Governor Ted Strickland commuted his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His case has been tied up in the appeals process since his conviction in 1984. He’s currently incarcerated at the Marion Correctional Institution and is being represented by attorneys with the Ohio Innocence Project.

Mottinger was working at the Elgin Post Office in 1982 when she was fatally stabbed during a robbery. Her body was found in a field in Hancock County more than a month later. According to reports, Mottinger’s body was wrapped in a canvas tarp that was covered in paint splatter, weighted down with concrete slabs and was secured by rope and duct tape. Her disappearance and murder made statewide headlines.

Before his conviction, Spirko had a lengthy criminal history. Among his other legal troubles – a 1970 murder conviction in Kentucky, a barroom fight with bikers and subsequent shotgun-waving incident in the Toledo area two months after Mottinger’s murder. He had also confessed to a series of coed murders in Michigan, only to later recant his story.