Authorities arrested a New York City man yesterday on a warrant charging him with the 1984 murder of an elderly woman in Worcester.
Craig Minggia, 47, of the Bronx, is accused of stabbing 79-year-old Lillian Johnson in her second-floor apartment on Freeland Street on July 15 or 16, 1984.
At the time, Minggia lived in the apartment above Johnson and was a Clark University student, police said. Minggia is originally from New York.
Blood samples from the crime scene were sent to the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory for analysis in 2004 and entered into the Combined DNA Index System.
Earlier this month, Worcester police detectives were told the DNA evidence matched a sample from Minggia, who had to supply a DNA sample after a sex offense conviction in New York earlier this year, according to a news release from Worcester police.
The suspect is a registered sex offender in New York.
The motive in the murder was unclear at the time. Investigators said it was sexually motivated although the victim had not been raped, the release said.
