Gretchen Perham
Convicted rapist and kidnapper Darius Ashley told Capital News 9 in an exclusive interview in December that he didn't kill 14-year-old Gretchen Perham. Whoever did dumped her body off Mount Hope Drive in Albany last May.
Ashley has remained a suspect even as he denies any wrongdoing in the case. According to an article in the Times Union Thursday, a man Ashley shared a jail cell with told investigators that Ashley supposedly "confessed" to killing Perham. That man allegedly then passed a lie detector test.
Albany County District Attorney David Soares said, "It's an open case. It continues to be investigated by the Albany Police Department. It continues to be a priority not only for this office, but for the police department in finding the killer - the murderer of Gretchen Perham."
District Attorney David Soares didn't want to comment on specifics on the Perham case. But while he refused to name Ashley as the man who murdered the young girl, he confirmed no one from his office leaked the information on the alleged confession.
Darius Ashley
Soares also said, "We have to balance the public's right to know information in this case with the integrity of this investigation...bringing this man to justice."
Ashley's attorney said his client "has professed his innocence with respect to this matter" and has "no reason to disbelieve him."
He calls the latest revelation "a fishing expedition," and believes "they're basing the truthfulness of this on a lie detector test by a convicted felon which is not admissible in the court of law."
Ashley has not been charged in this case.
There's another twist in the Gretchen Perham murder and possible connection to Darius Ashley, a man already serving time on rape and attempted kidnapping charges.
While investigators may be closer to figuring out who Perham's killer is, there are many questions that still need to be answered - not least of which is how credible such a confession is - and why any of this had to happen in the first place.