More than 27 years after a young Dent County woman was found murdered, her boyfriend is scheduled to stand trial today at the Phelps County Courthouse.

A resident of Beaufort, Donald R. “Doc” Nash, now 65 years old, was arrested in March 2008 after a Missouri Highway Patrol investigator sent fingernail clippings collected from the victim’s hand to the agency’s Crime Laboratory. A DNA test of tissue embedded in the fingernails revealed it matched Nash’s DNA.

The partially clothed body of Judy Lynn Spencer, 21, of Salem, was found hidden in an old outhouse foundation in rural Dent County one day after she was strangled with a shoelace from her right shoe and then shot in the neck on March 10, 1982.

At the time of her death, Spencer worked at a Salem hospital. A former cheerleader, she graduated from Houston High School in 1978.

Originally a Dent County case, it was transferred to Crawford County on a change of venue. Hearing the case, Senior Judge Douglas E. Long Jr., requested the trial be held in Phelps County, and as of late Friday, no plea agreement had been reached.

According to the Probable-Cause Statement filed with the court, the mixture of Spencer’s and Nash’s DNA in the fingernail clippings indicated a physical struggle had taken place, because Spencer washed her hair a short time before she was murdered, Nash’s DNA would not have been present through casual contact.

Additionally, fresh tire tracks at the scene of the crime indicated a van or truck had been present, and Nash said at the time he drove a Chevrolet pickup truck. Moreover, investigators determined Nash’s statements contained inconsistencies related to the length of time he said he searched for her after she disappeared.

A Crawford County jury was selected Friday to hear the capital-murder case. The jury is sequestered, and the court docket indicates Nash’s trial could last one week.

If found guilty, Nash could face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or death by lethal injection.