Cigarette leads to man’s arrest in 1981 Indiana cold case: documents

LAKE COUNTY, Ind. ( WGN ) — An Oregon man was recently extradited to Northwest Indiana in the 1981 killing of another man, and a cigarette discarded by his brother helped police find him.

The investigation into Gregory Thurson, 64, of Eugene, Oregon, began in 2018.

Griffith Detective John Mowery Jr., with the help of his father, a retired detective, began to look into the killing of John Blaylock.

According to court documents, Blaylock was found murdered on Nov. 3, 1981, at an apartment in Griffith.

His co-workers at Inland Steel told police he had not shown up for work the previous two days and that they were concerned.

Police found a grisly scene inside Blaylock's apartment. Blood was found in several rooms, and once officers entered the bedroom, Blaylock was found dead, naked from the waist down with blood all over the room.

Police noted that smashed pottery containing his hair and tissue were found near his body.

According to documents, the only lead police had around the time of the murder was that Blaylock liked to visit a bar called John's Place.

A woman told police Blaylock was spotted at the bar with a man she had never seen before two days before his death. The man was described as being 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches, between the ages of 20 and 23 with straggly, dirty blonde hair.

No one was ever arrested.

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Mowery Jr. in 2018 requested that blood evidence collected from the bathroom be tested by the Indiana State Police Laboratory. A DNA profile from an unknown male was obtained and entered into a system.

In 2022, the DNA was sent to Parabon's DNA processing laboratory and advanced DNA analysis was performed. In October of that year, the detective was given three names to whom the DNA likely could belong, and they all were related.

One potential suspect was located in a nursing home in South Holland and could not speak at that time. He died around six weeks later, but authorities were able to obtain a piece of his hair.

The hair excluded the man as a suspect and provided police with the names of two brothers.

One of the brothers was pulled over for traffic infractions in Burnham. Investigators there were informed by Griffith police about the case and that the man was a person of interest.

During the traffic stop, the man discarded a cigarette, which was collected by police as evidence.

Mowery Jr. then used the cigarette butt for DNA analysis and the man was excluded as a potential suspect, but his brother was not.

Thurson was determined to be the suspected killer of Blaylock from all of the DNA analysis and testing. He was found living in Eugene, Oregon, and was taken into custody on a murder warrant on Oct. 29.

He was recently extradited to Lake County. Thurson's next court date is scheduled for Nov. 20.