Nearly 50 years after a teenage babysitter was stabbed to death in a Colorado Springs apartment complex, a murderer has been identified, police announced Wednesday.
Only one problem: the man died 14 years ago.
The suspect, identified by the Colorado Springs Police Department as William Charles Kernan Jr., died in 2010, police said in a Wednesday news release. No cause of death was identified.
“The family and friends of Maria Honzell have waited over 47 years to get justice for Maria,” police said in the release. “Through years of analysis and investigation, CSPD is proud to finally provide answers to Maria’s loved ones.”
On Feb. 7, 1977, around 11:21 p.m., officers responded to reports of a possible suicide in the 5400 block of North Nevada Avenue, according to the release.
When officers arrived, they found 14-year-old Maria Honzelldead on the floor with multiple stab wounds to her chest and neck, the release stated.
Honzell was babysitting her neighbor’s two kids that night, police said.
The neighbor had contacted Honzell earlier in the evening and everything was fine, but when she arrived home around 11:20 p.m., she found the teenage babysitter dead in the master bedroom, according to a statement from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Neither of the children were harmed, and both were safely asleep in their beds when Honzell’s body was found, police said.
The El Paso County coroner examined Honzell and ruled her death a homicide, but police investigators struggled to make progress identifying a suspect.
As advancements in DNA technology progressed, investigators were able to develop a suspect profile from a blood stain on Honzell’s blue jumpsuit, worn the night of her death, according to the release.
No match was found for the DNA until 2019, when the suspect DNA profile was compared with samples from several commercial genealogy databases in partnership with Parabon NanoLabs, police said in the release.
Investigators identified Kernan as a person of interest, but learned the man had died in 2010, police said. Investigators were unable to collect his DNA since he had been cremated and had no living relatives.
Kernan was a student at a local college and an acquaintance of the woman Honzell had been babysitting for on the night of her murder, police said. The investigation revealed Kernan had been to the apartment complex multiple times before.
Police believe Kernan was the person responsible for the murder and have closed the case as “exceptionally cleared/death of offender.”
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