MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Minneapolis police have tracked down a suspect in a homicide that happened 32 years with some help from advances in DNA evidence.
Police officials said Wednesday the 57-year-old suspect was arrested in Kansas for the slaying of a medical technician at her Minneapolis apartment. Twenty-2-year-old Mary Steinhart was found stabbed to death by her sister in Nov. 25, 1980. The suspect was once a caretaker at the victim's apartment building, but didn't hold that job at the time of the homicide.
The Star Tribune reports detectives used fingernail scrapings and other evidence to find a match in the national DNA database. The suspect has a criminal history of burglary and sexual assault. Police credit advances in DNA technology and a grant from the National Institute of Justice for finally making an arrest.