Unless DNA can be lifted from the shirt I don't think it will be useful and then they have to hope the guy is a felon post say 2005 where DNA samples became mandated.If so you have a viable shot at a cold hit and if their lucky this monster is incarcerated somewhere and it won't be hard to find him.

Any ideas why this T shirt has been hidden away and not released to the public for 30 years? Does anyone else find it odd this didn’t happen 29.5 years ago?

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Sometime things that seem mundane at the time can seem more important in retrospect

Not necessarily, they could run the DNA through the public genealogical databases and get closer to who this person is. They can also create a phenotype of the suspect which could be helpful in narrowing down what the suspect might look like.

Very true I forgot about that or that could get a familial hit if a family member was incarcerated