https://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...x5q-story.html
DNA recovered from a can of Coca-Cola Vanilla has helped Colorado authorities identify a suspect in a 40-year-old murder mystery.
Sylvia Quayle was just 35 years old when a man broke into her home the night of Aug. 3, 1981. Her father discovered her naked body the following day and authorities said she'd been strangled, stabbed and shot.
Police said the phone line into her home had been cut and the screen to a bathroom window had been removed. The victim was also sexually assaulted, according to authorities.
More than 100 pieces of evidence were recovered from the scene, but investigators for decades struggled to identify the man behind the brutal crime. In the end, they were able to use genetic genealogy testing, a fairly new method used to identify the notorious 'Golden State Killer' in California, to locate a suspect.
The FBI partnered with a company called United Data Connect to trace DNA from a can of soda found at the crime scene to a Nebraska man named David Anderson. He'd been living quietly in the Colorado city of Cherry Hills in the years since he allegedly murdered Quayle, according to CBS Denver.
Authorities in January were able to confirm Anderson's DNA matched evidence found on the scene by testing it against pieces of garbage they lifted from his trash. The 62-year-old suspect was arrested earlier this month and remained behind bars Friday on two counts of first-degree murder.
'Sylvia's sister and family had the quote 'beauty seen is never lost' etched onto her grave marker as a very fitting reminder of the beautiful person she was,' CHVPD Police Chief Michelle Tovrea said at a press conference this week.
Should he be convicted, Anderson is facing life behind bars without the possibility for parole.