Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the indictment of JOHN PRICE, 49, on a charge of Murder in the Second Degree in the death of Joyce Williams. Thirteen years after the crime occurred, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Forensic Sciences/Cold Case Unit launched a full re-examination of this homicide, including a re-investigation of evidence and new interviews, before presenting the case to a Grand Jury in New York State Supreme Court, which indicted PRICE. The investigation into this case is continuing.

“In 2010, my Office’s Forensic Sciences/Cold Case Unit began an exhaustive review of more than 3,000 unsolved homicides dating back to the 1970s,” said District Attorney Vance. “This case from 1998 – the murder of a mother of nine, whose body was found on the roof of the Wagner Houses – was, in conjunction with the NYPD, part of that unprecedented effort.

“There are nearly 38,000 unidentified DNA profiles in the New York State DNA Databank. How many crimes could be solved if the State Legislature acts now to pass the All-Crimes DNA Bill? Thousands of crime victims are waiting for justice, convicted offenders stand to be exonerated, and scores of future crimes could be prevented if Governor Cuomo’s important legislation is enacted.”

According to statements made on the record in court, on July 9, 1998, Ms. Williams was found naked and strangled to death on a stairwell landing near the roof of the Wagner Housing Projects in Manhattan. She was four-months pregnant at the time.

District Attorney Vance thanked Assistant District Attorneys Elizabeth Lederer, Senior Trial Counsel in the Forensic Sciences/Cold Case Unit, and Melissa Mourges, Chief of the Forensic Sciences/Cold Case Unit, for prosecuting this case, as well as the many current and former ADAs who worked on this case. Trial Preparation Assistant Christopher Griesedieck also assisted with the investigation.

District Attorney Vance also thanked the New York City Police Department, particularly the detectives in the Cold Case Squad, including Detectives Robert Dewhurst and Sylvia Bone, as well as the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, including Dr. Barbara Sampson, for their office’s work in this investigation.

Defendant Information:

JOHN PRICE, D.O.B. 1/13/63

Charges:

• Murder in the Second Degree, a class A felony, one count

A class A felony is punishable by 25 years to life in prison.