The Huntsville Police Department’s Cold Case Unit has closed two Huntsville cold case homicides from 2010 after investigators linked a man who died in 2013 to both killings.
Police said 15 years of unanswered questions ended when investigators established probable cause that Jeremy Powell killed 60-year-old Herbert Gray in July 2010 and 41-year-old Eden Arlene Lua in November 2010. Powell died in 2013, so neither case will go to prosecution.
Powell was a suspect from the start
HPD’s Major Crimes Unit first investigated both deaths, which police ruled homicides. Detectives considered Powell a suspect in each case but could not build enough evidence to establish probable cause at the time.
Powell knew Gray. He also lived near Lua when she was killed, according to HPD.
TV interview and fingerprints
The Cold Case Unit kept working through evidence and information from both investigations. Investigators found a television news interview with Powell recorded shortly after Lua’s death. Police said statements he made in it led them to look harder at his possible role in the killings…