AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Police in Austin, Texas, say new DNA testing capabilities led them to charge a man in a homicide that took place more than 30 years ago.
Police have charged 58-year-old Lester Ray Guy with capital murder in the death of Hazel Ivy, found strangled in her Austin apartment in September 1978, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Gay is already in prison, serving a 99-year sentence for a 1979 for burglary with intent to commit rape in Travis County, the newspaper said.
DNA evidence gathered from the scene of Hazel Ivy's death included several slides of samples from her body, but police did not have the technology to match it in 1978.
The slides were preserved until 2001 when the Austin police department formed its cold case unit, homicide Sgt. Scott Ehlert said.
The DNA was first connected to Guy early last year, and further testing this year confirmed the match was 1 in 186.8 million, police said.
"It was a long process, but we had to sit and wait because we knew that technology was advancing," Ehlert said.
Police Chief Art Acevedo said the case serves as a reminder about the importance of testing and collecting DNA evidence.
"DNA speaks for the victims of crime that aren't here to speak for themselves," Acevedo said. "This is why law enforcement wants to gather DNA evidence -- to keep us bringing justice to these cases."
