A discarded coffee cup has led to an over 40-year-old murder investigation being solved, according to reports.
The cup found at Philadelphia international airport earlier this year led to 68-year-old David Sinopoli being taken into custody on Sunday.
He is being held without bail in connection with the death of 19-year-old Lindy Sue Biechler, according to Pennsylvania authorities.
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Lindy was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Lancaster County in December 1975, but the perpetrator of the crime was never identified.
It was not until researchers from a Virginia-based DNA analysis firm used a new technique to pinpoint Mr Sinopoli as a possible suspect in what The Washington Post reported was one of the United States’ longest unsolved cold cases.
Mr Sinopoli was traced to Philadelphia International Airport’s Terminal A in February, where investigators waited for him to throw out a used coffee cup, according to the Lancaster County district attorney, Heather Adams.
The cup was then retrieved by the detectives, and DNA analysis found a match between Mr Sinopoli’s fingerprints and DNA found on Ms Biechler’s underwear.
He was arrested on Sunday.
Speaking the day after his arrest, Ms Adams said Parabon NanoLabs determined through DNA evidence that Biechler’s killer probably had ancestors from the Italian town of Gasperina in the southern Calabria region.
A researcher, CeCe Moore, pinned Mr Sinopoli as a person of interest after looking through newspaper archives and historical records.
Ms Adams said he had lived in the same apartment block as Lindy Biechler.
Between Ms Biechler’s murder and Mr Sinopoli’s arrest, the Lancaster County district attorney said as many as 300 people had been interviewed about her killing.
After no breakthroughs were found, the DNA evidence was stored in a national database.
“This case was solved with the use of DNA and, specifically, DNA genealogy,” Ms Adams said. “And quite honestly, without that, I don’t know that we would have ever solved it.”
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