Police Think Man Mentioned in Serial Killed Woman in SC

South Carolina detectives believe they've solved a cold case murder, and you might recognize the name of the alleged perpetrator. Ronald Lee Moore was mentioned in the first season of the Serial podcast as a possible suspect in the 1999 murder of Baltimore's Hae Min Lee—though Adnan Syad, who maintains his innocence, was ultimately convicted. No DNA tied Moore to the case (the same is true for Syad), but police now say Moore's DNA was found on towels and other evidence from the 1996 murder of 23-year-old Shawn Marie Neal in her condo in North Myrtle Beach; that case was reopened in 2017. The convicted serial burglar from Baltimore County, Md., had no ties to the area, but police believe he may have passed through on his way to visit friends in Louisiana, where he died in prison in 2008.

Moore has been blamed for hundreds of burglaries and at least one sexual assault, per WMBF. In 2013, police said his DNA had been linked to the 1999 murder of 27-year-old Annelise Hyang Suk Lee. Her body, showing signs of blunt force trauma and strangulation, was found at her apartment in a Baltimore suburb on Dec. 13, 1999, months after Hae Min Lee was found to have been strangled. Moore had been released from prison 10 days before Hae Min Lee disappeared, per WPDE. "Personally I would have loved to ask him, 'Why?'" Detective Lt. Micheal Swarthout tells WMBF of Neal's murder. "But I'm just happy that it's over." Agencies will continue to scour cold cases for any that might be attributed to Moore, per WPDE. (More cold cases stories.)