Connecticut cold case murder of teen girl solved via DNA evidence, authorities say

A Connecticut man was arrested by police and held on a $2 million bond Saturday in connection with the cold case murder of a teenage girl nearly 17 years ago.

Willie Robinson, 52, is accused of strangling Jessica Keyworth, 16, and leaving her in a basement stairwell of an apartment building just blocks from his known residence after Memorial Day Weekend 2004, according to the Republican American newspaper in Waterbury, Conn.

Keyworth took a train into Waterbury that arrived just before midnight on Memorial Day to meet up with a friend but she was found murdered in a stairwell the next morning.

"We’re so happy that we can bring some closure and justice for the girl’s family," Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said, according to the newspaper. "A lot of it had to do with a lot of perseverance by the detectives involved in the case."

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Spagnolo praised the detectives as "peerless."

The chief didn’t specify what led investigators to Robinson but said they were aided by DNA evidence and forensic science,  FOX 61 in Hartford reported. It wasn't clear how she ended up in the stairwell. 

Investigators scoured the city after Keyworth’s murder, even traveling as far as Las Vegas in 2007 to interview someone about the case, but there were never any arrests.

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Robinson was arrested on an unrelated offense for interfering with a police officer just months after Keyworth’s murder, but it’s not clear if he was interviewed about her death at the time. Officers didn’t say if there was any known prior connection between Robinson and Keyworth.

Robinson has an arrest record that includes sexual assault and risk of injury, the newspaper reported, but there was no record of any convictions.

He faces one count of murder.

Police put Keyworth’s unsolved case in a specially designed deck of cards sold to prison inmates that features cold cases on different cards. Keyworth was the three of hearts. The cards have led to hundreds of tips in cases, but police didn’t say if her card helped lead to Robinson’s arrest.

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The investigation is ongoing and police said the $50,000 reward for information helping lead to an arrest and conviction in the case is still available, the newspaper reported.