#Jessica Baggen death: DNA solves 1996 case of teen raped, murdered after birthday party

DNA evidence has solved a 24-year-old cold case of an Alaska teen who was raped and murdered after celebrating her 17th birthday, authorities said.

Steve Branch, a 66-year-old man from Austin, Arkansas, fatally shot himself on Aug. 3 after Alaska State Troopers interviewed him at his home in the sexual assault and murder of Jessica Baggen, who disappeared on May 4, 1996, as she walked home one day after her celebrating her birthday, authorities said Tuesday.

Using a new forensic procedure called genetic genealogy, Branch emerged as a suspect in the unsolved slaying late last year. The Arkansas man, who lived in Sitka at the time, denied involvement in Baggen’s death and refused to submit a DNA sample, troopers said.

Branch then shot himself roughly 30 minutes after investigators left his home to get a search warrant. An autopsy later found his DNA matched that of a sample left at the scene and on Baggen’s body, authorities confirmed Tuesday.

“While nothing will ease the pain or bring Jessica back, I am humbled and proud of the work that many law enforcement professionals did over the years to bring closure to her family and friends,” Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner Amanda Price said. “They never forgot about Jessica or the people that loved her.”

Baggen’s body was found buried beneath a fallen tree days after her disappearance, the Anchorage Daily News reports. She had been remembered as a “true Sitka kid” who loved fishing and cooking, as well as “Thanksgiving pie-making marathons” with her family, according to her obituary.

A Sitka man confessed to killing Baggen shortly after her death, but no physical evidence tied him to the crime and he was eventually acquitted. More than 100 other potential suspects were also cleared through DNA comparisons, the newspaper reports.

A DNA sample from the crime scene was then uploaded to genealogy databases in February 2019. Branch — who was indicted for sexually assaulting another teenage woman in 1996, but was ultimately acquitted — was later identified as a suspect in Baggen’s death by the end of the year, authorities said.

Branch, who moved to Arkansas in 2010, lived at addresses near where Baggen’s body was found at the time, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

The teen would have turned 41 in May.