Terrence Miller, left, was arrested Wednesday in connection to the 1972 rape and murder of Jody Loomis, authorities said.
(Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)
Authorities in Washington state said a 1972 rape and homicide cold case is one step closer to being solved after DNA evidence from a coffee cup led to the arrest of a suspect on Wednesday.
Terrence Miller, 77, was arrested in his Snohomish County home around 10:30 a.m. and charged with first-degree murder for the August 1972 rape and killing of 20-year-old Jody Loomis, police said in a press release.
Loomis had been riding her bike through a wooded area in present-day Mill Creek Road when she was raped and shot in the head, police said. A couple found her alive less than an hour later but she died on the way to the hospital.
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Authorities said Miller became a suspect after DNA evidence was uploaded to a public genetic genealogy website. Snohomish County investigations captain Rob Palmer told The Seattle Times that DNA collected from Miller’s cup matches semen that was collected at the 1972 crime scene.
Police said the genetic genealogy was the same technique that had led to the arrest of the “Golden State Killer” and a suspect in the murderer of a Canadian couple near Seattle in 1987.
Miller is being held at Snohomish County Jail on $1 million bail. He has reportedly refused to discuss the case. According to charging documents cited by The Times, Miller has been accused of multiple sex crimes since the 1960s.