Almost 40 years after the violent death of two Canadian women, the alleged perpetrator has been arrested.
As the police in Toronto announced on Monday, the evaluation of genetic material found at both crime scenes led to George Sutherland.
Charges of double murder were brought against the 61-year-old, who had since moved from Toronto to Moosonee, about 850 kilometers away.
Sutherland allegedly sexually assaulted and stabbed 45-year-old social worker Susan Tice in her home in the summer of 1983.
Four months later, investigators found the body of 22-year-old designer and heiress Erin Gilmour, who died under similar circumstances.
Determined with the help of DNA traces
The investigations of the Toronto Police Service were in vain at the time.
As the Toronto Star reported last week, genetic genealogy eventually led to Sutherland.
Using DNA the killer left in the victims' homes, investigators designed a genetic profile of his family.
Matching the profile to data from the genealogy website GEDmatch pointed to Sutherland.
As further investigation revealed, the then 22-year-old lived in Toronto in 1983, but later moved to the small town of Moosonee on the Hudson Bay.
Sutherland is said to have lived there inconspicuously for years.
"Without genetic genealogy, we would never have come across his name," a police spokesman said.
The first court date awaits the alleged woman killer on December 9th.