WILLMAR, Minn. — Willmar police made an arrest Thursday in connection to a homicide from 1974.
Police arrested a 79-year-old suspect in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is currently awaiting extradition to Minnesota.
On Jan. 27, 1974, police responded to a home the 800 block of 6th Street SW on the report of a deceased individual. Family members notified police that they had gone to the home to check on an elderly relative who was not answering the phone.
The victim was identified as 74-year-old Mable Herman, who police say appeared to have suffered multiple stab wounds.
Fast forwarding to June 2020, Willmar Police Department says they put together a temporary cold case review team and over a two-week period they examined reports from the Herman case. The team discovered items that could be used in DNA analysis.
The 79-year-old suspect's DNA was not in any database, but a matching DNA sample was later acquired through a search warrant with the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.
The suspect was arrested at their home without incident.
