Thanks to DNA we now have an arrest in the 1984 murders of Buckels and McMahan. Seldon Wayne Colvin (58) was arrested for the murders of John Robert Buckels (38)and Janis Petkas McMahan (37).
On Sept 28, 1984, the badly decomposed bodies of Buckels and McMahan, both of Houston (Texas), were found along Old Highway 105, near Cleveland in Montgomery County. They both had died of gunshot wounds.
Sheriff’s Office detectives in 1984 interviewed people and followed many leads but despite all their efforts, they were unsuccessful.
During the first investigation blood evidence was discovered and collected by the Houston Police Department. However, in 1984 the technology did not allow for the type of forensic testing that is available today. The blood evidence remained stored in the Houston Crime Lab for nearly 25 years.
In July 2009, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office cold case detectives reopened the double murder investigation and went back to the evidence that was still stored at the Houston Police Department. Modern DNA testing was applied to the evidence. The results matched Colvin. He was one of the original persons of interest that detectives kept their eyes on in the first investigation.
Since the 1984 double murders, Colvin was convicted of two other crimes: an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Harris County on May 23, 1985, and another aggravated assault, this one in Harrison County on Oct. 11, 1985. Colvin received 30 years in prison for the first and another 20 years for the latter. He was paroled on Sept. 30, 1994. His supervision was to end Oct. 1, 2014.
He was arrested in this double murder case while visiting his parole officer in Pasadena, June 2, 2010. He now faces charges of capital murder. Read the article here.
UPDATE: Jurors found Seldon Wayne Colvin guilty of capital murder in Buckels’ death and guilty of murder in Petkas McMahan’s death. Colvin was sentenced to life in prison for the capital murder on Buckels and 40 years for the murder of McMahan. His sentences run concurrently.