Man Arrested for the Murder of Stephanie Hummer

Published: Jan. 18, 2006 at 10:46 PM EST|Updated: Jan. 19, 2006 at 2:47 PM EST
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Columbus Police arrested Jonathan J. Gravely, age 35, for the 1994 homicide of Stephanie Hummer. Hummer was an 18 year old freshman at Ohio State University when she was killed.

Wednesday's arrest is a result of a DNA match through Ohio's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Investigators say Gravely was arrested on a felony count of failing to pay child support in 2004. Ohio law says all felons now have to submit their DNA, that's how CODIS made the match.

Hummer was a 1993 graduate of Finneytown High School. She was on full scholarship at Ohio State. Wednesday, her family said they were stunned and overwhelmed at the news. They thought police would never make an arrest.

"The news now all of a sudden brings us back to March 6, 1994," her father Dan says. "And it brings a lot of that back. With the exception that one of the big unknown pieces has been taken care of."

Stephanie was walking on a Columbus street, just off campus, when she was kidnapped. Police say her killer raped her, then dumped her body.

Gravely had never been a suspect in the initial investigation. Investigators say they did thousands of interviews, but had no idea he existed. They say the crime was random, that Gravely did not know Stephanie.

Her mother, Sue, is not sure if the arrest will bring closure or even a feeling of justice to her family.

"There's no way you can get actually justice," she says. "Because you can't have Stephanie back. You can't trade Stephanie's life for this man's life, which has no value. That to me is the only justice and you can't have that."