By Melody Ann Feist
Accused missionary killer Robert Elmer Kleasen is currently fighting extradition from Britain to be retried for the murder of two Texas elders in 1974.
Elder Gary Darley, 20, and Elder Mark Fischer, 19, disappeared on the evening of Oct. 28 after a dinner appointment with Kleasen.
Police later found Fischer''s bloody watch and a bullet-pierced missionary nametag in Kleasen''s trailer, and a band saw laced with human hair and tissue at his workplace.
Officials were forced to disregard the evidence because of a faulty search warrant, said Assistant District Attorney Bryan Case in Travis County, Texas.
Case said new evidence has caused the court to call for a retrial.
'The new evidence consists of DNA found with techniques that were not available at that time,' Case said.
Case said the DNA from blood-spattered clothes found outside Kleasen''s home matches Darley''s DNA almost exactly.
According to The Associated Press, Kleasen, 69, 'loudly guffawed when a prosecution witness mentioned new genetic evidence' during a recent hearing in London.
Ken Driggs, veteran attorney and author of Kleasen''s story, 'Evil Among Us: The Texas Missionary Murders,' said clients like Kleasen are a defense lawyer''s worst nightmare.
'He actually ran off the first set of lawyers who were representing him in the murder trial,' Driggs said.
Driggs said despite Kleasen''s protests, he will probably end up back in Texas.
'I think he''s just raising a lot of dust,' Driggs said. 'But he will eventually be extradited. And I think it is likely that he will be convicted on retrial in Texas.'
Some countries, like Britain, have treaties with the United States concerning extradition cases like this one.
'We had to give our word that he would not be tried for capital punishment,' Case said. 'If he got convicted, he would end up serving a life sentence.'
Case said British court members are hesitant to hand over Kleasen because they suspect Travis County will break the treaty.
'The extradition court is spending all this time exploring U.S. law,' Case said. 'The question before them should be, is he the man who''s wanted?'
Driggs said if Kleasen is extradited and convicted, it is immaterial whether he is executed.
'The goal of all this is to keep him in prison and off the street,' Driggs said. 'The longer he drags this out, the longer he stays in custody, so in a perverse way he''s just accomplishing the prosecutor''s goal.'
Dale Bills, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he is thankful for all the hard work that is going into the case.
'The church appreciates the untiring efforts of law enforcement authorities who are seeking justice in the senseless killings of Elder Gary Darley and Elder Mark Fischer,' Bills said.
'After so many years and so much sorrow for the Darley and Fischer families, our hope is that this matter can be finally resolved and that justice will be done,' he said.