Allison Feldman murder: Here's what to know about the case as Ian Mitcham goes on trial
Allison Feldman case: Murder suspect goes on trial
10 years after a woman was found dead inside her Scottsdale home, trial has begun for the man who allegedly killed her. FOX 10's Kenzie Beach has more on the first day of trial for Ian Mitcham.
PHOENIX - It has been just over a decade since an Arizona woman was found dead inside her home, and on Nov. 12, the man who is accused of killing her will stand trial, after weeks of jury selection.
Here's what to know about the Allison Feldman murder case, the suspect, and the legal saga that surrounded the case.
Who is Allison Feldman?
Allison Feldman
Allison Feldman was a 31-year-old woman who was killed in her home in February 2015.
What we know:
According to our report on the case in 2021, Feldman moved to Arizona from Minnesota for college, and eventually settled in Scottsdale.
In our previous report, we noted that at the time of Allison's death, she was a new homeowner, had a boyfriend, and had received a promotion at work.
What allegedly happened?
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Per court documents related to the case, the murder happened at a home near Pima and Thomas roads.
We previously reported that Allison was found dead on Feb. 18, 2015 by her then-boyfriend. The boyfriend then called police.
"We knew something was wrong," Allison's father, Harley, recounted in 2021. "She hadn't called all day. We hadn't heard from her the night before. Her phone was off. In sales, your phone is never off."
According to investigators, the boyfriend told police he went to Allison's home to check on her welfare.
"The front door to the house was locked. [The boyfriend] used a key and went inside," investigators wrote. "He smelled a strong odor of chlorine or bleach coming from inside the house."
The boyfriend, per the court documents, found Allison dead in a hallway.
Court documents contained graphic details surrounding the case. According to investigators, the victim was found in a state of undress, and the suspect allegedly strangled Allison, beat her, and sexually assaulted her with a beer bottle.
"This case was one of the worst scenes that I've been to," said Scottsdale Police Detective John Heinzelman.
Who is the suspect?
Ian Mitcham (From Archive)
The suspect has been identified as Ian Mitcham.
According to court documents related to the case, Mitcham, who is now 50 years old, was arrested on April 10, 2018. At the time of his arrest, he was working at a deli, and was living with members of his family.
Big picture view:
According to our report on Mitcham in 2018, the suspect had a criminal past.
Per records, Mitcham was arrested for misdemeanor DUI in January 2015, one month before Allison was found dead. He was also arrested for aggravated DUI in January 2016.
How was Mitcham identified as the suspect?
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We reported in 2021 that Mitcham was found via familial DNA.
The backstory:
The familial DNA search happened after Mark Brnovich approved the move during his time as Arizona Attorney General.
We previously reported that former Arizona State Senator Barbara Leff's connections led to the approval. Allison's mother, Elayne, met Leff and told her about Allison's murder during Elayne's 2016 trip to Israel and Poland with her father.
"In familial DNA, think of that more like casting a net over a large group of family members or what will be called first degree relatives of that unknown DNA profile," Heinzelman explained.
A partial DNA profile was developed from the crime scene by investigators, and familial DNA was used to find a partial match to a first-degree relative who was in prison at the time.
Following Mitcham's arrest, it was discovered that a blood sample taken from him in a prior DUI arrest three years prior was stored as evidence, and this newly-acquired DNA profile matched the one developed from the crime scene.
Learn more about forensic genealogy
What happened from Mitcham's arrest until now?
Long story short, there were years of legal issues that involved the case.
Timeline:
In 2021, we reported that Mitcham's trial was delayed to January 2022, with further delays possible due to the then-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In January 2023, a Maricopa County judge threw out the DNA sample that led to Mitcham's arrest.
The judge who made the decision to throw out the sample focused on blood that was collected from Mitcham during one of his prior DUI arrests: at the time, two vials were collected, one of which was used for testing during the course of the DUI investigation, while the other vial was meant to be used for independent testing on Mitcham's behalf, should he so choose.
In his ruling, the judge said Mitcham signed a notice that stated the second vial of blood would be destroyed after 90 days if a testing request was not made. However, that vial of blood was never destroyed, and remained in Scottsdale Police custody until late 2017, when Mitcham became a suspect in Feldman's murder.
"A subsequent analysis of the blood vials generated a DNA profile that matched the profile found at the scene of the crime. Police later obtained a search warrant to collect a buccal swab from Defendant, and the evidence collected pursuant to that warrant matched as well," read a portion of the ruling.
The judge ruled that since Mitcham agreed to the taking and analysis of his blood for drug and alcohol testing, the subsequent DNA analysis exceeded the scope of consent.
Prosecutors appealed the ruling in June 2023, and in August that same year, a state appeals court reversed it. The state Supreme Court heard arguments on the DNA evidence in September 2024, and in December that same year, the state Supreme Court ruled that the DNA evidence can be used.
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According to the state Supreme Court ruling, while the 2018 creation of Mitcham's DNA profile from that second vial of blood constituted a search, and that the search was unreasonable and violated Mitcham's 4th Amendment rights, a legal doctrine called the "inevitable discovery exception" applies because prosecutors would have inevitably discovered Mitcham's DNA profile.
The justices, in their ruling, based that on a state law that requires the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry to take a sample of blood or other bodily substances "for purposes of DNA profiling from every person convicted of a felony and sentenced to prison."
The ruling noted that Mitcham pleaded guilty to various charges unrelated to the murder six months prior to an evidence suppression hearing on the Feldman murder case, and was subsequently sentenced to serve time at a state prison.
"Thereafter, ADCRR is required to transmit the sample to DPS, which must extract a DNA profile and enter the results into Arizona's DNA identification and CODIS," read a portion of the state Supreme Court ruling. "If the police had not created a DNA profile from the second vial of blood in 2018, DPS would have done so after [Mitcham's] 2022 felony convictions."
The Source: Information for this article was gathered from previous FOX 10 news reports on the Allison Feldman murder and subsequent developments, with supplemental information gathered from the Arizona Supreme Court's website.