Fort Worth Police ID Man Who Murdered 11-Year-Old Julie Fuller In 1983 Cold Case.


On June 27, 1983, 11-year-old Julie Fuller was staying with her mother and brother at the Kensington Motor Lodge and Apartments, a motel in Arlington. The energetic and lively young girl went to take out the trash and never came back. The following day, her body was found by construction workers along the banks of the Trinity River, situated in Northeast Fort Worth. Julie had been assaulted in a certain way and her killer left behind DNA samples, the police database CODAS returned no matches. The cold case tormented the Fuller family for decades, especially Lee Fuller, who never gave up looking for his little sister's murderer. In 2018, he finally received the closure that he had dreamed of since he was 13 years old. The Fort Worth Police Department had partnered with Paraben NanoLabs, a company based in Virginia that uses genealogical mapping to track DNA not included in police databases.



In February 2018, they managed to create a photo of what Julie's murderer looked like, identifying a DNA match a year and a half later in December 2019. James Francis McNichols was determined to be Julie Fuller's killer. His family confirmed that McNichols had been in Fort Worth at the time of Julie's murder, and more reports were uncovered that supported his presence in the area. Moreover, there was evidence that McNichols had preyed on others, but these assaults were never reported to the police. However, James Francis McNichols will never be punished nor will he ever be brought to justice since he passed away in 2004 while living in Iowa. Fort Worth homicide detective Tom O'Brien was largely disappointed with the outcome of the case, having worked on it since 2013 in a bid to put Julie's murderer behind bars. Lee Fuller felt a mixed bag of emotions, although, for him and the rest of his family, it felt good to finally receive closure.
                                        

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