DNA revives murder case, more than 30 years old, in Ventura County
In July 1980, authorities found 15-year-old Stacy Knappenberger beaten, stabbed to death and sexually assaulted in her Oxnard home.
On Thursday, more than three decades later, a Ventura County Superior Court judge ruled there was enough evidence to charge an Alabama man -- 66-year-old Thomas Coalt Young -- with the crime, according to the Ventura County Star.
Knappenberger’s case went cold until a task force was able to use DNA evidence to connect Young with the crime. Young will be arraigned in February.
Authorities were able to get Young’s DNA after he was arrested on unrelated charges. Young’s DNA was then entered into a national database.
Young was arrested in September and brought to Ventura County to face the charges.
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