Longtime TPD Detective Solves 2017 Murder Right Before Retirement

Tulsa police solved a murder from 15 months ago thanks to a sex crimes detective who broke the case while investigating a rape.

9/18/2018 Related Story: Tulsa Police Arrest Suspect In Unsolved Homicide

She believed the rapist might also be the killer, got the man's DNA and now, he's charged with murder.

Liz Eagan grew up watching TV shows where she saw policewomen go out and catch the bad guys and she thought to herself, ‘one day, I'm going to grow up and catch bad guys’ and oh, did she.

Detective Eagan has been with TPD for 37 years, with nearly 20 in the special victim's unit, catching hundreds of rapists and getting justice for victims.

She hears and sees terrible things every day, but does it to make a difference.

"I know for a fact, I've put some very bad people in prison. I know I have made Tulsa a safer place ... when I lay my head on my pillow at night, that's the satisfaction, I get," Eagan said. 

No case has been more satisfying than helping solve the murder of Amy Robertson, a grandmother, who was raped, strangled, beaten and thrown into a dumpster in April of last year.

Six months later, Detective Eagan was working a rape case and she realized the rapist in that case, just might be Amy's killer.

"It was just the viciousness and the statements he made to my rape victim that made the hairs stand up on my head," Eagan said. 

The rape suspect was Dennis Kurtz Jr. She got a warrant for Kurtz' DNA and when the results came back from the lab, Liz was elated.

"I felt like crying. I felt like jumping up and down, mainly, I was just relieved because it went unsolved for quite a period of time," Eagan said. 

Amy's family was also relieved as prosecutors charged Kurtz with murder. He's already in prison for the rape case. 

Ironically, this may be one of Detective Eagan's final cases; she's retiring next month.

"What a way to go, Lori, what [a] way to go out, to close my career. I couldn't think of anything better," said Eagan. 

Getting justice for one more victim.