DNA leads to an arrest two decades after slaying

A school classmate is charged in the 1986 death of a pregnant woman.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 6, 2007

DEERFIELD BEACH - More than 20 years after a pregnant woman was found strangled on a road, one of her high school classmates has been charged with her murder.

Gary Troutman, 45, was charged Wednesday and jailed without bail in the death of 24-year-old Angela Savage in March 1986, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.

Troutman had been released two years ago after serving nine years in prison for murdering a pregnant teen in February 1986.

The Sheriff's Office said DNA samples taken from Troutman while he was serving his sentence for killing the teen linked him to the second murder. Officials also said Savage had been raped, something Savage's brother, Wayne Adams, said he just learned now.

Court records did not list an attorney for Troutman. He had a public defender in his previous case, but that office's phone would not accept incoming messages Thursday.

Troutman went to Deerfield Beach High with Savage, and their families attended church together, relatives said after his arrest.

"They were all friends. (Troutman's) wife and my daughter - all of them grew up together, " said Savage's father, Bernard Adams.

Savage's murder case was reopened several times, most recently in March 2006. At the time, detectives said they were counting on DNA evidence to crack the case.

Savage was last seen buying cigarettes at a neighborhood store with her infant son. Witnesses said they saw a man approach her as she walked home. The infant was found safe the next morning on the porch of a family friend, and her body was found sprawled on a road.

Six weeks earlier, Cassandra Scott, 17, had been found strangled near a Deerfield Beach warehouse. That case remained unsolved until Troutman was arrested in 1994 after a fight with his wife.

While being questioned, he confessed that a strangulation fantasy had compelled him to kill the pregnant Scott, authorities said.

[Last modified July 6, 2007, 00:56:47]