Police have arrested a former Nevada deputy attorney general in connection with the 1972 murder of a 19-year-old woman in Honolulu.
Tudor Chirila Jr., 77, was arrested Tuesday and is being held without bail in Washoe County Jail, according to The Associated Press.
Police said DNA evidence links Chirila to the murder of Nancy Anderson, the AP reported.
He is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder and a charge of being a fugitive from another state.
Anderson was stabbed 63 times on Jan. 7, 1972,
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Multiple suspects had been considered, according to the AP, which cited a paywall-protected story in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
However, no arrest was ever made,
Anderson moved to Hawaii in October 1971 after graduating from high school in Bay City, Michigan. At the time of her death, she was working at a McDonald’s restaurant, according to the AP.
In December, police received a tip that made them consider Chirila.
The Reno Gazette Journal reported that once police began to consider Chirila as a suspect, they noticed he was in Hawaii at the time of the killing. Police Chirila had reported a car stolen in 1971. At the time, he listed his place of birth as Honolulu, according to the newspaper.
In February, the Reno Gazette Journal reported, citing a criminal complaint, Hawaii authorities asked the Reno police for help in getting a DNA sample from Chirila. After weeks of surveillance, they were unsuccessful.
The Newport Beach Police Department in California was able to get a DNA sample from Chirila’s son, the Gazette Journal reported. That put the pieces in place for the warrant seeking Chirila’s DNA and his ultimate arrest.
On Sept. 6, Reno police obtained DNA from Chirila himself under a search warrant, according to the Gazette Journal.
The newspaper reported that court documents said Chirila tried but failed to kill himself,
No date was set for Chirila’s extradition to Hawaii.
According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, Chirila ran for a seat on the Nevada Supreme Court in 1994.
At that time, he said he had been a law clerk for Nevada Supreme Court Justice Noel Manoukian, an assistant Nevada attorney general and chief of the civil division in the City of Reno attorney’s office.
