The unsolved case of a gas station operator killed more than 60 years ago in Winnebago County appears to finally have an answer. The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday said that their Detectives, working with multiple specialized DNA companies and labs, have identified a suspect in the killing of Wayne Pratt.
Pratt’s wife, Marie, told authorities that on the night of June 12, 1963, her husband was watching TV at home some 50 feet away from the gas station Wayne operated on old Highway 41, when a car pulled up. Wayne went to help the customer, but when he hadn’t returned home his wife went to check on him. Wayne was found covered in a blanket in a back room, dead from 53 stab wounds. Evidence at the scene suggested that the perpetrator was also bleeding.
Pratt scene, Courtesy of the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office
After an extensive, 5-year investigation, the case was declared a “cold case”, but was re-opened in 2011 with multiple DNA labs analyzing the blanket. It took until this year to match some of the blood to William Doxtator. He’d been ID’d as a suspect shortly after the crime. A warrant to obtain DNA from him, along with other possible suspects, was obtained in 2018 when he was 82, and he has now been statistically matched to the crime.
Although now more than 60 years past, the DA’s office agreed that a homicide charge was warranted against Doxtator, who will never serve time for the crime. He died two years ago.
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