Mother Of Murdered Tulsa Girl Promotes New DNA Bill

The mother of a murdered Tulsa teenager says a bill going through the state capitol might be able to help find the suspect. Maggie Zingman's daughter was killed in 2004; the person responsible has never been found.

Zingman continues to fight for justice.

Brittany Phillips' final resting place is covered with flowers and loving mementos. She was an 18-year old college student studying chemistry when she raped and strangled in 2004.

Her mother now travels the country hoping to find the person responsible. Not a day goes by that she doesn't think of her daughter.

"It actually spurs me on to come here," said Maggie Zingman, at her daughter's grave. "I mean, I miss her, and when I'm here even looking at that angel, it's unbelievable how much that reminds me of her when she was little."

Zingman says investigators have the DNA of the suspect in her daughter's murder but no one to match it to.

"When they first told me they had DNA, within the first six months I thought it'd be solved," Zingman said. "I was just like everybody else - I really thought that we'd have our killer.

5/17/2010 Related Story: Tulsa Police Investigating Whether Suspect In Attempted Rape Is Connected To Unsolved Murder

That's spurred her to change state law.

She's working with State Senator Clark Jolley of Edmond on Senate Bill 851. The bill would allow investigators to get a DNA sample from someone when they are arrested for certain violent felonies instead of waiting for a conviction.

She says it would be similar to taking a fingerprint and booking photo.

Zingman says critics are concerned it would mean DNA is floating around the countryside and possibly used for other reasons, but she says that's not true. The DNA, Zingman says, would actually be stored in a crime lab and only a series of numbers would be used to identify a potential suspect.

"It's logic - if people would just look at the facts. That's the only way we are going to protect our children, because this could be your daughter; it could be anybody's daughter.

Zingman asks everyone to contact your local state senator and ask them to support Senate Bill 851 and get this law passed.

Learn more about Brittany and Maggie's fight for justice.