DOGE Cuts Stall an Oregon Town's 1983 Murder Mystery

The New York Times calls it "perhaps the most unlikely casualty of the Trump administration's sweeping budget cuts last spring." An Oregon county some 2,500 miles away lost a very specific 2023 grant from the Justice Department: one designated for rural violent crime. It had allowed Union County DA Kelsie McDaniel to hire her office's first investigator, Mike Harris. And he believed he had figured out who committed the decades-old Candy Cane Park murder in La Grande. But in April, he was yanked off the job and moved to another position that doesn't handle investigations when the grant was eliminated.

As the Times explains, the case has "haunted" La Grande since 1983. Bartender Dana DuMars was killed by seven hatchet blows in a park named for its red-and-white striped swing set after work one February night. The original investigation was marred by bizarre police tactics, including an attempt to convince a suspect he had magical powers; the suspect's conviction was overturned after three years. Harris made up for lost time, poring over 8,000 pages of evidence and sending off fingernail clippings to be tested for DNA. He narrowed the list to two suspects, who he did not name. But for now, he says the case is "dead in the water." (Read the full story for more about what's known of the crime.)