PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) – After the case remained cold for decades, a man was sentenced to prison for the murder of a Mt. Hood Community College student in 1980.
On Thursday, 61-year-old Robert Plympton was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 40 years after he was found guilty of first-degree murder in March .
Plympton was taken into custody by Gresham police in June 2021 and was initially charged with the rape and murder of Barbara Mae Tucker, who was a 19-year-old business student.
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The night of the incident, around 7 p.m. January 15, 1980, Tucker was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and beaten to death near a campus parking lot by Plympton, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said.
The next morning, students found her body in a wooded area near the parking lot and Northeast Kane Road.
Authorities said the break in the case came from DNA technology that was not available over 40 years ago.