GREAT BEND – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) announced new DNA evidence in the unsolved Sept. 4, 2002 double murder of 79-year-old Mary Drake and 24-year-old Mandi Alexander that occurred at the Dolly Madison Bakery in Great Bend.
The investigation into the 2002 homicides of Drake and Alexander remains open. A thorough investigation was conducted by the KBI, the Great Bend Police Department, and the Barton County Sheriff’s Office, but currently no one has been arrested for these crimes.
The women were killed in the early evening hours on Sept. 4, 2002. The Great Bend Police Department responded to the bakery at 1004 Harrison in Great Bend, just before 8 p.m., after a Dolly Madison Bakery delivery truck driver located the bodies of the two women inside the business. A witness described seeing a white male leaving the bakery who appeared to be in his 30s.
Over the past year, KBI special agents and forensic scientists completed an exhaustive review of all of the physical evidence collected in this investigation. They reassessed the potential for additional results by utilizing current forensic technologies, especially those that have had significant advancements in the 20 years since Drake and Alexander were killed.
As a result of this new testing, male DNA was discovered on a sample collected from the body of one of the victims. KBI agents and detectives from the Great Bend Police Department have collected numerous DNA samples for comparison to the DNA discovered, and will continue with these efforts.
We wish to thank the public for each of the tips previously provided in this case over the years and urge anyone, who knows even the slightest detail related to these crimes, to contact the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME. Information can also be submitted anonymously at https://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar.
The investigation is ongoing. Nothing further can be released.