A 38-year-old cold case was solved Thursday as Miami-area police say they arrested a suspect they believe robbed and murdered a real estate broker.
Jeffrey Taylor, 64, of Liberty City, Florida, was arrested this week in connection with the June 13, 1986, killing of 49-year-old Shirley Brant. Police called Taylor a "career criminal" when they announced the arrest.
Police in North Miami Beach said that Taylor shot and killed Brant while she was working at her office and having a conversation on her phone, according to Local 10.
According to police, Taylor — who was 26 years old at the time — and another man entered Brant's office and demanded that she hang up her phone. Brant and Taylor reportedly had a struggle, at which time he shot the real estate broker, police said.
Brant was transported to Parkway Regional Hospital, where she died.
One of Brant's co-workers heard her scream, and saw one of the men trying to wrestle the phone out of her hand.The co-worker said she heard Brant yell "don't shoot" before hearing a gunshot.
The attackers fled the scene after stealing Brant's cash and credit cards.
Retired police who worked on the original case returned to assist current officers in the latest investigation. During their review, they found latent fingerprints that hadn't been entered into the Fingerprint Identification System at the time because they did not meet the criteria for acceptable evidence then.
After a review of the latent prints, police said they were able to link evidence to Taylor earlier this year. He has since been arrested on a second-degree murder charge.
As of Friday, Taylor was being held without bond in jail.
Brant's family held a news conference Friday and expressed their gratitude to the detectives for "all the hours they tirelessly worked to solve this case."
Brant's husband passed away before an arrest was made. The family said that he was relentless in his fight to bring his wife's killer to justice, and said that "this is all for him."
"He missed my mom terribly, terribly. He hired a private eye to look over things and to see that everything was done," Brant's son, Steven Brant, told PEOPLE.
North Miami Police Chief Juan Pinillos praised the detectives for securing an arrest in the murder.
"The resolution of this case reflects our department's commitment to justice, no matter how much time has passed," he said in a statement. "We hope this arrest bring a measure of closure to the Brant family and all who knew her."
