{"id":2276,"date":"2025-06-14T07:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T07:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/captainnews.info\/?p=2276"},"modified":"2025-06-14T07:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T07:00:03","slug":"oregon-man-found-guilty-of-1980-murder-after-dna-from-chewing-gum-links-him-to-the-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/captainnews.info\/?p=2276","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Man Found Guilty Of 1980 Murder After DNA From Chewing Gum Links Him To The Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Plympton’s DNA was matched to samples found at the scene of Barbara Mae Tucker’s murder more than four decades ago.<\/h2>\n
\"Robert<\/p>\n

Multnomah County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/span>Robert Arthur Plympton, the man found guilty of murdering Barbara Mae Tucker in 1980.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

An Oregon man has been found guilty in the 1980 cold case murder of a 19-year-old college student \u2014 all thanks to a piece of chewing gum.<\/p>\n

Four decades ago, a medical examiner determined that Barbara Mae Tucker had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death. Now, her killer has finally been identified.<\/p>\n

According to a\u00a0news release\u00a0from the Multnomah County District Attorney\u2019s Office, 60-year-old Robert Arthur Plympton was found guilty of first-degree murder. He was not convicted of rape, however, as prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Tucker\u2019s sexual assault had occurred while she was still alive.<\/p>\n

The Murder Of Barbara Mae Tucker<\/h2>\n

On the morning of Jan. 16, 1980, students at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, were on their way to class when they discovered 19-year-old Barbara Mae Tucker\u2019s body lying in a wooded area near a parking lot on campus.<\/p>\n

For decades, Tucker\u2019s murder went unsolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone brutally took her away from us when she was so young, and went on living their life after,\u201d Barbara\u2019s sister Susan Pater told\u00a0Oregon Live<\/em>\u00a0in 2021.<\/p>\n

Tucker was a sophomore business student at Mount Hood Community College at the time of her death. She was on her way to class on the evening of Jan. 15 when she was spotted running out into the street from a wooded area. Witnesses recalled that Tucker was waving her arms as if trying to get their attention, but no one stopped to help.<\/p>\n

\"Barbara<\/p>\n

Gresham Police Department<\/span>Barbara Mae Tucker was 19 years old when she was murdered on her college campus on Jan. 15, 1980.<\/span><\/p>\n

One witness reported seeing a man emerge from the wooded area and lead her back toward campus. The next morning, her body was found \u201cpartially clad\u201d lying in some bushes. Nearby were her purse and books.<\/p>\n

Tucker was a tall, athletic woman. She had competed in a national basketball competition and won several awards while also pursuing a variety of hobbies, including sewing, knitting, and crocheting. Family and friends described her as goofy and ambitious. She loved the arts, wrote poetry and music, and planned to one day open her own craft supply shop.<\/p>\n

A major breakthrough in Tucker\u2019s case came when Cece Moore, a genetic genealogist who runs a group known as DNA Detectives, tested genetic material that was collected from the crime scene and plugged it into a database called GedMatch.<\/p>\n

The analysis showed that Robert Arthur Plympton was a \u201clikely contributor\u201d to the DNA profile. He was placed under police surveillance in 2021.<\/p>\n

Robert Plympton\u2019s Criminal History Reveals A Dark Past<\/h2>\n

As police began digging into Plympton\u2019s past, a more sinister picture of the man came into focus. In 1985 \u2014 five years after Tucker\u2019s murder \u2014 Plympton was convicted of second-degree kidnapping in Multnomah County, for which he served a 30-month sentence.<\/p>\n

Between 1993 and 1997, Robert Plympton served two more six-month sentences for DUI charges and parole violations. He was also accused in 1997 of attempted sodomy and assault in an attack on a woman, although the case was ultimately dismissed as a grand jury found insufficient evidence to file a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

While these incidents alone didn\u2019t point to Plympton being Tucker\u2019s murderer, they showed that he was, at the very least, a violent and dangerous person.<\/p>\n

\"Barbara<\/p>\n

The Oregonian<\/em><\/span>A newspaper headline about Barbara Mae Tucker\u2019s murder.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When investigators saw Robert Plympton spit a piece of chewing gum onto the ground in 2021, they collected it and sent it off for analysis. The DNA profile developed from that piece of gum matched the vaginal swabs taken from Tucker\u2019s body during her autopsy.<\/p>\n

Plympton, who was 16 years old at the time of the murder, pleaded not guilty. He claimed that he did not match the description of the man seen leading Tucker into the woods that night.<\/p>\n

While Plympton\u2019s lawyers argued that there was reasonable doubt their client had killed Tucker, Judge Amy Baggio disagreed, saying at the trial, \u201cTo be clear, this court has zero doubt whatsoever that Robert Plympton beat Barbara Tucker in her head and face until she died. He did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plympton is set to be sentenced on June 21.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Plympton’s DNA was matched to samples found at the scene of Barbara Mae Tucker’s murder more than four decades ago. Multnomah County Sheriff\u2019s OfficeRobert Arthur Plympton, the man found guilty of murdering Barbara Mae Tucker in 1980. An Oregon man has been found guilty in the 1980 cold case murder of a 19-year-old college …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-true-crime"],"yoast_head":"\nOregon Man Found Guilty Of 1980 Murder After DNA From Chewing Gum Links Him To The Crime - CAPTAINNEWS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/captainnews.info\/?p=2276\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oregon Man Found Guilty Of 1980 Murder After DNA From Chewing Gum Links Him To The Crime - CAPTAINNEWS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Robert Plympton’s DNA was matched to samples found at the scene of Barbara Mae Tucker’s murder more than four decades ago. 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