The unsolved killing of a 19-year-old woman in suburban Chicago more than four decades ago was linked to a suspected serial killer believed to be responsible for several other slayings in the area, authorities said Wednesday.
Police in North Aurora, west of Chicago, said at a news conference that they solved the killing in 1979 of Kathy Halle, 19, using advanced DNA technology that an official with the laboratory that conducted testing in the case compared to a “wet vac. “
Authorities identified Halle’s killer as Bruce Lindahl, 29, who died in 1981 when he inadvertently severed a major artery in his leg and bled to death during a knife attack on Charles Huber, 18, according to The Associated Press.
Halle disappeared on March 29, 1979, after she left her apartment complex to pick up her sister at a shopping center, North Aurora Police Detective Ryan Peat told reporters. Her body was found three weeks later in a nearby river.
Authorities now believe Lindahl abducted Halle from her apartment’s parking lot and killed her, Peat said.
Authorities did not provide her cause of death, but Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser told reporters that Halle’s killing appeared similar to other abductions and killings linked to Lindahl.
Peat said several unsolved killings in the area have “incredible” circumstantial evidence relating them to Lindahl.
Four years ago, a detective in the nearby suburban city of Lisle said Lindahl may have killed as many 12 people, including Pamela Maurer, 16, in 1976, the AP reported.
Maurer, who was also abducted, was linked to Lindahl through DNA evidence and the case was solved in 2020, according to the AP.
Peat said investigators in North Aurora relied on a DNA sample from that case to connect Lindahl to Halle’s killing.
Steve DuBois of DNA Labs International told reporters Wednesday that a forensic technique known as “MVAC” was used in Halle’s case.
The technology, which he said sprays sterile solution onto a piece of evidence before it is sucked back up, can identify severely degraded genetic material.
Halle’s body had been in the Fox River for weeks before a 12-year-old boy who was fishing found her remains on April 24, 1979, according to NBC Chicago.
North Aurora police said in a statement Wednesday that Halle’s family thanked authorities and said they were grateful to have closure after 45 years.
Citing the advancement in DNA technology, the family said: “We are hopeful that other families won’t have to endure the same pain and uncertainty we faced for so many years.”