The family and loved ones of Sylvia Quayle finally found some closure since she had been raped and murdered at her Colorado home in August 1981.
Detectives used recent genetic genealogy to identify the suspect in the cold case using DNA evidence he left on a Vanilla Coke at the crime scene.
The FBI identified David Anderson, a Nebraska resident who was living a quiet life during the last 40 years, as Quayle’s killer.
The woman was found covered in blood and bruises with several broken fingernails.
“It’s been a journey, and then getting to know Jo, and understanding, being a little sister and what Sylvia meant to her, it’s been a little breathtaking,” CHPVD Police Chief Michelle Tovrea said.
“Sylvia’s sister and family had the quote ‘beauty seen is never lost’ etched onto her grave marker a very fitting reminder of the beautiful person she was.”
Anderson is set to be tried under 1981 laws and faces life behind bars for first-degree murder charges.
