A Cozad man has been found guilty of murder in a 40 year old case in Cherry Hills Village in Colorado.
According to the Englewood Herald – 62 year old David Anderson was found guilty Thursday of murdering Sylvia Quayle at her home in 1981 – bringing a close to a more than four decades old cold case.
An affidavit said Quayle’s body was found by her father at her home on the morning of August 4, 1981.
An investigation revealed she had been shot with a 22 caliber bullet in the top of her head, stabbed three times, and there was also evidence of strangulation.
The Herald reports that the case was without a suspect for more than 25 years after DNA evidence in 1993 disproved another man’s false confession to the crime.
A DNA sample of the suspect was submitted to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in 2000, but was left unidentified for more than 20 years.
The Herald reports that in 2020 – Cherry Hills Village police began working with former Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey – who’s company provided police with genetic genealogy testing.
Through an extensive investigation – Morrissey’s team was able to home in on one suspect, and on January 17th of 2021, an investigator traveled to Cozad to secretly collect DNA from Anderson.
DNA from a Vanilla Coke can matched that of Anderson – and he was arrested and charged with two counts of first degree murder.
The Herald reports that Anderson first faced a trial in early March but, after five days, jurors were unable to reach a verdict and a judge declared a mistrial.
On Thursday, the jury in a second trial returned guilty verdicts for Anderson on both counts of murder.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 4th and faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
