Nebraska man, 55, is arrested for cold case murder FOUR DECADES ago when he was 17 – as cops finally match DNA samples from the killing of a 72-year-old woman who was beaten to death and sexually assaulted at home
- Bryan Reed, 55, has been arrested over the murder of grandmother Wilhelmina Reid
- Reid was found bludgeoned to death inside her Salt Lake City home in August 1982
- Police obtained DNA samples and fingerprints from the crime scene, but were unable to find a match until this year
- Reed, who was 17 years old at the time of the murder, has reportedly confessed to the crime and now faces charges of murder and aggravated burglary
Bryan Reed, 55, was arrested over the 1982 murder of grandmother Wilhelmina Reid, 72, in Nebraska on Thursday
A Nebraska man has been arrested over the 1982 murder of an elderly grandmother, with cops claiming to have cracked the cold case by matching his DNA to samples taken from the crime scene.
Bryan Reed, 55, was taken into custody on Tuesday, more than 37 years after Wilhelmina Reid, 72, was found bludgeoned to death inside her home in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Reed was just 17 years old at the time of the crime.
He is currently being held in a Nebraska prison and is awaiting extradition to Utah, where he faces charges of murder and aggravated burglary.
On Wednesday, Salt Lake City police remained tight-lipped about how they finally managed to match Reed’s DNA to samples taken from the crime scene.
Genealogy websites have recently helped to solve several cold cases after relatives of the perpetrators uploaded their DNA to online databases. However, detectives did not disclose whether this was how they managed to tie Reed to the murder after nearly four decades.
Reid, who was a grandmother, was found bludgeoned to death insider her Salt Lake City home (pictured)
Reed became a suspect around a year ago, and was first interviewed by police last December, according to Deseret News.
Reid was a grandmother who was living alone at the time of her murder
He was re-interviewed earlier this month, where investigators told him that he had been linked to the crime via his DNA.
At that point, he reportedly confessed to the murder.
It’s alleged Reed broke into Reid’s home on the night of August 18, 1982 and sexually assaulted her before beating her to death.
He moved from Utah to Nebraska shortly after the crime.
In a statement, Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown revealed his department was ecstatic to have finally solved the case.
‘These are cases that we want to get solved. Cold cases are just as important to our detectives as are current cases and we are constantly reviewing them,’ he stated.
‘If we have leads, we exhaust them. The implication of being able to solve these cases is immense. Both for the victim’s family and for the community to know that a killer has been caught. We are proud of the hard work put in by our investigators to solve this case’.
Salt Lake City Police are ecstatic to have solved the murder of Reid after more than 37 years