With Nassau County detectives closing in on him, and a court order for his DNA pending, Florida resident Howard Elkins delivered a fatal, self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head last Friday, September 10 - a violent act which supported police suspicions that more than 30 years ago, Elkins murdered the mummified pregnant woman found September 3 in a steel drum stored underneath a Jericho home.

Property records indicate that Elkins, 71, was the first of five homeowners to reside in the split-level house, located on Forest Drive, near Robbins Lane. Elkins, who once co-owned a Manhattan business called Melrose Plastics, moved into the home after its construction in 1957 and remained in Jericho until October 1972. This places him in the house during the time police theorize the mysterious woman, who has been tentatively identified, was killed from a blow to the head.

Elkins was found dead by his son Steven in the back seat of a Ford Explorer parked inside the garage of a neighbor's home. Though Elkins' suicide implies his guilt, authorities still have work to do. They must shore up various leads which firmly link the man to the murdered woman, confirm the woman's identity and analyze the results of DNA tests which will indicate if Elkins is the father of the victim's unborn child.

The day before Elkins' suicide, homicide investigators Detective Sergeant Robert Edwards and Detective Brian Parpan, working with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, approached Elkins at his home in a quiet Boca Raton neighborhood, popular among seniors and retirees. The detectives conducted a one hour and 20 minute interview with Elkins, whose wife and adult son were not present.

Detectives went into the interview aware of several incriminating clues pointing toward Elkins. Most notably, the murdered woman was determined to be an employee of Elkins who worked at his New York City business from 1966 - 1968. Edwards would not reveal how this connection was discovered.

"The first part of the conversation we asked him about his business - how the business ran, who some of the people were that worked there," explained Edwards. "We also asked him if he had a relationship with any of the women that worked there."

Elkins admitted that he did have a relationship with an employee, but said that he could not remember her name or describe her. He said that his wife was aware of the relationship.

Edwards later asked Elkins if he would submit to a DNA test. "We asked him for a sample of DNA, which would have been from saliva. We would have swabbed the inside of his mouth. He refused that," said Edwards.

At that point, "we told him that we were going to go to Palm Beach County and attempt to get a warrant for his DNA," the sergeant continued.

Toward the conclusion of the interview, Elkins' wife called to say that she was on her way home. "[Elkins] asked us to please leave, [saying] that he had a lot of talking to do with his wife, a lot of things to discuss, and he didn't want us there when she arrived. We honored that."

The police would never speak with Elkins again. The next day, shortly after 1 p.m., Elkins committed suicide. His body was found later that evening. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is investigating the suicide.

Elkins did not leave a suicide note. But even without an admission of guilt, police are building a strong case against him. Investigators now know that the artificial plants and flowers which Melrose Plastics manufactured were dyed with a chemical that is stored in the same kind of barrel as the one in which the woman was entombed.

"We had detectives go over to the company in New Jersey which made the drum. We traced it to...the chemical company which shipped out the dyes that were in it," said Edwards. "We cannot say through records at this point in time that that drum was shipped to Mr. Elkins' company. But what we can say is that similar drums, with the same chemical, were shipped to Mr. Elkins' company."

The motive behind the murder could be further established once police obtain DNA test results. Blood samples from Elkins and the full-term fetus were slated to be shipped to a DNA laboratory no later than Thursday, September 16.

Police now believe the woman, between 25 - 30 years old, is an Hispanic immigrant from Central America, possibly El Salvador.

"We have been working very vigorously to try to identify the remains, and we do have a lead in that direction, but it's something we're not going to give out at this time until we have a positive identification," Edwards said.

At one point police feared that the murdered woman may have had a son. Several former employees of Melrose Plastics who were interviewed by police recalled seeing the woman believed to be the one murdered with a young boy. Detectives now think that she was only babysitting that child.

Only one week ago, detectives were looking at a window of 10 years during which the murder could have taken place - from March 1963 to October 1972. They have condensed that window significantly to between late 1968 and early 1969.

The body was discovered shortly after former owner Ronald Cohen sold the home to Hamid Tafaghodi. Tafaghodi requested that the 55-gallon drum be removed from a 36-inch crawl space located underneath a back addition to the house.

Cohen complied and, upon opening the drum, he and his realtor found a woman's hand and shoe protruding from a second barrel, turned upside-down inside the first.

Cohen, like the home's previous two owners, never paid much attention to the drum, which was too heavy to bother moving and was seemingly innocuous.

The Elkins sold their home in October 1972 to Arthur and Judith Ebbins. The Ebbins sold it in 1984 to Frank Salmaggi, who sold it to Cohen in 1990.