Investigators who used forensic evidence to link a Phoenix man to the unsolved 1981 slaying of a 93-year-old woman heralded the case as the Valley's latest example of a cold-case collaboration resulting in criminal charges.
Relatives of Martha Winters, who was fatally beaten by a burglar at her Phoenix home nearly three decades ago, stood Monday alongside detectives to thank them for providing closure to the tragedy.
Winters was found badly wounded with her 92-year-old sister, Jesse Winters, at a home in the 500 block of West Southern Avenue in February 1981. Phoenix police revisited the unsolved case with detectives from the Maricopa County Attorney's Office after analyzing evidence from the original crime scene.
Both women were hospitalized with serious injuries, though Jesse Winters survived.
Gary Billy Bivens, 52, was arrested last week on suspicion of Winters' murder through a suspected DNA match taken from a comb, which led authorities to an additional fingerprint match.
The case also involved a handwriting analysis of a letter discovered in connection to the original crime scene, investigators said.
"It's a link to a link to a link," said Bill Stuebe, a former Phoenix police homicide detective who investigates cold cases for the county attorney's office.
"People don't realize that some of these cases can take three years or more," he said.
Bivens was indicted in July by a Maricopa County grand jury and taken into custody last week in Phoenix following a tip through Silent Witness, according to police.
Bivens was released from the Arizona Department of Corrections in 2003 after serving a three-year sentence for aggravated assault. He is scheduled to appear for a court arraignment on Wednesday.
Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said Bivens' arrest was an example of how his office has worked closer with Phoenix police homicide investigators since 2008 on more DNA analysis of unsolved murders.
Phoenix police Lt. Joe Knott, a violent crimes bureau supervisor, credited a U.S. Justice Department grant for providing the department with added resources to tackle the complicated forensic analysis required to hunt cold-case suspects