Investigators say genetic evidence connected Edwin Newlander to Kalyn Smith’s 2021 death and evidence collected in two separate sexual-assault investigations.

TACOMA, Wash. — A cigarette tossed from a pickup truck during a June traffic stop gave Tacoma investigators the genetic sample they had been seeking for years, authorities say, ultimately linking 59-year-old Edwin Lee Newlander to DNA recovered after Kalyn P. Smith was found dead in a roadside ditch in 2021.

The discarded cigarette became the central break in a case that had remained unresolved for nearly five years. According to court records and published reports, investigators recovered male DNA from Smith’s fingernails after her body was found near McKinley Park on Oct. 12, 2021. The genetic material did not initially produce an identification. Years later, however, authorities said evidence from two separate rape investigations pointed back to the same DNA profile, allowing detectives to focus on Newlander before obtaining a discarded sample directly associated with him.

The case began shortly after 7:30 a.m. when Tacoma police responded to the 3100 block of East M Street and found Smith, 30, in a ditch. Court records cited by several news organizations say a witness had seen a dark SUV in the road and encountered a man who drew attention to a body nearby before leaving. Because it was dark, the witness could provide only a limited description of the driver. The Pierce County Medical Examiner later determined that Smith died from asphyxia caused by compression of her neck. Police treated the death as a homicide.

Investigators preserved evidence collected from Smith, including fingernail clippings containing a mixture of DNA. The genetic profile was searched through the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, the national system used by participating forensic laboratories to compare DNA profiles. At the time, investigators did not get a match that identified a suspect. The evidence remained available, however, and that became important as detectives investigated later crimes. Court records described in subsequent reports indicate that there may have been more than one DNA contributor in the material collected from Smith, a detail that could become significant as the criminal case proceeds.

A major shift came from a December 2025 sexual-assault investigation. A woman identified in court records by the initials J.H. underwent a sexual-assault examination after reporting that she had been raped. DNA associated with that investigation matched genetic material from Smith’s fingernails, according to police and court records. Investigators also learned that the profile was associated with evidence from another rape investigation dating to October 2019. That gave detectives a forensic link spanning three cases over more than six years, although a DNA association alone did not yet tell them whose profile they were seeing.

Detectives obtained a more specific lead when they spoke again with J.H. in May 2026. She identified one of the men she accused of assaulting her as someone named “Ed,” according to court documents. She described him as a white man in his 50s who was short and stocky, with thinning or balding hair on top and longer hair on the sides. Investigators believed that description was consistent with Newlander. Authorities then had both a recurring DNA profile and a potential name, but they still sought a sample they could compare directly with the evidence.

The investigation took another turn on June 9, when J.H. was found dead at a gas station. Authorities determined that she died from an overdose, and the records reviewed by news organizations do not accuse Newlander of causing her death. Surveillance video showed a pickup truck investigators associated with Newlander in the parking lot within roughly an hour of her death, according to court records. That information became another part of the broader investigation, but the homicide charge involving Smith rests on allegations tied to Smith’s death rather than on an allegation that Newlander killed J.H.

One week later, on June 16, police stopped Newlander while he was driving a pickup truck. Authorities said he discarded a cigarette during the stop. Officers collected the cigarette, and the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory tested DNA from it. Investigators said the profile was linked to evidence in Smith’s homicide and the two rape investigations. For detectives, the discarded cigarette provided something earlier database searches had not: a genetic sample they could associate with a known person and compare with material preserved from the three cases.

Police interviewed Newlander about Smith on Sept. 2. According to court records, he acknowledged encountering a woman he believed was Smith but denied killing or injuring her. Investigators said his account changed during the interview. In one version, he said he picked her up while trying to make a new friend and claimed that she attacked him, scratching his face and arms and biting him before leaving his vehicle. In another account, he said the two had spent time together on more than one occasion and that he drove her toward McKinley Park the night she died. Police also said Newlander was able to describe clothing Smith was wearing when she was found.

Those statements are allegations contained in investigative records, not findings of guilt. Newlander repeatedly denied harming Smith, according to the documents. A prosecutor would still have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt not only that Newlander was connected to Smith but that he committed the charged homicide. The defense can challenge how investigators interpreted his statements, the significance of the DNA mixture, the handling and testing of evidence, and any other part of the prosecution’s case. The existence of DNA connecting people or objects does not by itself establish when contact occurred or prove every element of a criminal charge.

Published accounts differ on the precise charges recorded around Newlander’s early court appearances. Law&Crime, The New York Times and People reported that he was charged with second-degree murder and described the rape investigations as continuing. A Tacoma News Tribune report republished by AOL said that, at an arraignment, Newlander faced one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree rape and one count of first-degree kidnapping. That report also said a court commissioner entered a not guilty plea on his behalf and set bail at $1 million. Because the available reports conflict, the exact current charging document should control over shorthand descriptions in news coverage.

The arrest brought renewed attention to Smith, whom friends knew as “Penny.” A longtime friend, Destiny Fann, told KIRO 7 after Newlander’s court appearance that the arrest brought both relief and anger after years without an answer. Fann described a friendship that began when they were teenagers and said the two helped each other through difficult periods. That remembrance added a personal dimension to a case otherwise dominated by forensic evidence: Smith was 30 when she died, and the evidence preserved from her body would remain central to the investigation for years after the original crime scene had been cleared.

The investigation also illustrates how evidence from separate cases can become newly important long after it is collected. Smith’s fingernail DNA did not identify a suspect in 2021, but investigators retained the sample. A later sexual-assault examination produced a forensic association; another older rape investigation expanded the pattern; an interview supplied a possible first name and description; and a discarded cigarette allowed police to obtain a comparison sample without relying on the original database search. Each step narrowed the investigation, according to authorities, until police arrested Newlander in September 2026.

The sources reviewed for this report did not establish a final resolution of the case by Oct. 20. Newlander is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless he is convicted, and disputed allegations about the homicide and sexual-assault investigations remain matters for the court. The DNA evidence that investigators say revived Smith’s case will now be tested not only in a laboratory record but through the rules of evidence and the criminal justice process.

Author note: Last updated Oct. 20, 2026.