Murder suspect let go after questioning – five years later tapes are revisited, what cops hear helps finally snare him

A MURDER suspect has been caught after he made a key mistake in the interview room that cops found five years later on audio tapes.

Loril Harp was 68 years old when he was interviewed a second time by police in 2020 – over a 1993 cold case that took place in Missouri.

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Liquor store owner Steven Weltig, 40, was fatally shot in the head in 1993 but cops were stumped over who committed the murder.

Harp was questioned in 2015 and “dead time” footage from the interview revealed his “incriminating remarks” when the case was reviewed in 2020.

When detectives left the room, Harp was shifting around in his chair before pulling out his cell phone to make a call.

On the phone, he said: “I’m not under arrest, but I probably will be before I leave here.”

This one sentence was key to connecting him to the 1993 murder, according to police.

His body language was also telling with Harp constantly fidgeting and pulling at his shirt.

Five years later, Corporal Brett Ackermann and Detective Corporal Josh Wineinger took on the cold case and reviewed the interview tapes.

Wineinger told Fox News that he was “100 percent convinced” that Harp had murdered Weltig.

“Watching that dead time helped us,” Ackermann added, referring to Harp mentioning jail.

“He was on the phone with someone saying, ‘I’m going to jail.’

“Stuff that would indicate he was guilty of this.”

After bringing Harp back in for questioning, officers sat down with him for three and a half hours and he once again appeared to incriminate himself.

This occurred after Ackermann asked: “How did it happen that [Weltig] got a bullet hole in his head? And you’re the only person there, Loril?”

According to the detective, he continued to deny shooting the store owner but said that Weltig had gone for him with a gun.

“I grabbed his hand and hit him until he dropped the gun,” Harp told police.

“And then I hit him again, and then I took off out the door. I hurt him. I know I hurt him. Like I said, I fight. I hit him f**king hard. But I didn’t shoot him.”

However, he then added that he went home and showered because he “had a bunch of blood” on him.

When he was then asked to repeat that he was covered in blood, Harp said: “I must have if I shot him. Or he shot me.”

An officer then said: “You weren’t shot.”

After realizing his mistake, Harp attempted to say that the blood was from the alleged fight with Weltig.

The detectives saw through his attempted lies and arrested him on September 30, 2020, charging him with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

“Doesn’t that feel better? After 27 years, to know that you don’t have to worry for the rest of your life with this hanging over your head,” Wineinger told Harp at the end of the interview.

The year after his arrest, Harp died from an illness.

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