Griffith Detectives Solve Cold Murder Case From 1981
At the direction of Griffith Police Chief Mance, investigators were tasked to re-investigate Griffith Police “Cold Cases” for any Homicides that were unsolved.
In 2018, Griffith Police Detective John Mowery Jr began looking into the 1981 Murder of Griffith resident, 51 year old John Blaylock, that was still an open case with no suspect.
Detective Mowery scoured the old case file and re-interviewed any witnesses and Griffith Police detectives that worked on the original case, including his father, retired Griffith Detective John Mowery Sr.
Detective Mowery discovered that blood from an unknown male was found at the crime scene. The blood was determined to be that of the individual most likely responsible for the homicide.
The blood was sent to the Indiana State Police for laboratory examination and a DNA profile was developed from the blood at the scene, however, there was no match in the national DNA database for offenders.
Detective Mowery then outsourced the suspect’s blood to a private company that does Genetic Genealogy Investigations. Additional funding for this outsourcing was approved and provided by the Griffith Town Council. This company was able to identify and narrow down a familial match to the suspect’s DNA profile.
With this new information, Detective Mowery was able to identify two (2) brothers that would most likely match that of the suspect’s DNA. Detective Mowery, with the assistance of the Burnham, IL police department, was able to obtain a DNA sample from one of the brothers.
After testing this sample, it was determined that he was not the suspect, however, he was likely the brother of the suspect. The other brother was found to be living in Eugene, OR.
Given that Detective Mowery’s investigation had led to the likely killer of John Blaylock, he provided his findings to the Lake County Prosecutor’s office. After careful review, the charge of Murder was filed against Gregory Thurson.
With an arrest warrant for Thurson in hand, Detectives John Mowery and Jake Schoon, along with a representative of the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office traveled to Eugene, OR.
The Eugene, Oregon Police Department Violent Crimes Unit executed the arrest warrant on Thurson on October 29, 2024 and he was taken into custody without incident.
Gregory Thurson has since been extradited back to Lake County where he is in custody in the Lake County Jail pending further court proceedings.
The Griffith Police Department congratulated the Griffith investigators, past and present, for their hard work and professionalism.
The Griffith Police Department also showed their appreciation to the following agencies for their assistance in this investigation:
Lake County Sheriff Crime Scene Investigators(Past and Present)
Indiana State Police laboratory
Burnham, Illinois Police Department
Eugene, Oregon Police Department
Lake County Prosecutor’s Office
Parabon Nanolabs
Griffith Town Council
