The DNA review of five murder cases between 1973 and 1979 was ordered by Broward County Sheriff Ken Jeanne last month in an effort to verify whether Jerry F. Townsend, 49, is guilty or innocent.

Townsend, a Hallandale Beach carnival worker, confessed to all five murders but was convicted in 1980 of killing Naomi Gamble, Barbara Brown and Terry Cummings.

Investigators were unable to find enough viable material from the remains of Ernestine German to conduct a test, and the samples taken from the remains of Brown and Thelma Bell were inconclusive, officials said.

But investigators said the DNA samples taken from the remains of Cummings and Gamble matched the DNA of another man: Eddie Lee Mosely, a convicted killer who has been in a state psychiatric hospital since 1987.

Mosely, 53, has been declared mentally incompetent to face a slew of charges against him, said Cheryl Stopnick, a Broward County Sheriff's spokeswoman.

"There's also some reason to believe that Jerry Townsend is also mentally impaired in some way," Stopnick said. "Maybe Townsend was confessing to crimes that he did not actually commit."

Townsend is serving a life sentence at Polk County Correctional facility.

The findings have been forwarded to the Broward State Attorney's Office, who will ultimately decide how to proceed, Stopnick said.

Even if he was cleared in all the Broward killings, Townsend still would serve a life sentence for two convictions in Miami-Dade County.

AP-ES-04-27-01 2147EDT