DNA links Colorado man to 1976 slaying

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Police say DNA analysis tied a man currently in prison for sexual assault to the 1976 slaying of Antlers Hotel housekeeper Janet Conrad in Colorado Springs.

Conrad had worked at the hotel for seven years before she was killed Dec. 3, 1976, at age 38.

Investigators had not been able to identify a suspect from the evidence they collected during the initial investigation, but the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Colorado Springs Police Department Laboratory -- working with a grant from the National Institute of Justice -- identified Robert Baillie, 58, as a suspect, The (Colorado Springs) Gazette reported Thursday.

Baillie -- who is scheduled to be eligible for parole in January 2014 in the sexual assault case -- was arrested Wednesday at the Fremont Correctional Facility in Canon City, the newspaper said.

A co-worker initiated the search for Conrad after the housekeeper seemed to vanish while at work. Conrad's body was found in a linen closet and a subsequent autopsy determined she had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled.