Three years after a former Minnesota woman was found murdered in her Scottsdale, Ariz., home, police announced Tuesday that they have arrested a suspect in her death.
The suspect, Ian Mitcham, 42, was identified through familial DNA testing, police said. He was arrested Tuesday and was being held on first-degree murder charges.
Allison Feldman, 31, who graduated from Minnetonka High School in 2001, was found in her home on Feb. 18, 2015. She was lying in a pool of blood and had head trauma, police said then. She was naked and the area smelled of bleach, according to news reports at the time.
Police have not been able to find any link between Feldman and Mitcham, Assistant Chief Scott Popp said at an afternoon news conference in Scottsdale.
Feldman was last seen alive on Feb. 17, 2015. Her boyfriend found her body the next day after friends and family members weren't able to reach her and called him. Police said he was not a suspect.
Feldman had attended the University of Arizona. She worked in sales at a medical device company in Arizona.
Police Chief Alan Rodbell said police collected well over 450 pieces of evidence from her home, including DNA from a possible suspect. They interviewed more than 300 people and "never stopped investigating this case; it was never a cold case," he said.
After three years and no links to the DNA left at the scene, Scottsdale police contacted the Arizona Department of Public Safety and asked for a familial DNA search. Months later, that search turned up a brother of the man arrested Tuesday.
"We all feel like we've made it to the 50-yard line, and it's been a long, long road to get here," Popp said Tuesday. "Everything we know about Allison Feldman, she was a beautiful human being, there is no reason whatsoever Allison should have been the victim of a violent crime in our city."
Pat Pheifer • 612-673-7252
