A 79-year-old man has been charged with murder of an 18-year-old woman who was stabbed more than 120 times in her suburban Chicago home almost six decades ago.
Karen Snider was found dead by her husband Paul Snider on the night of 12 November 1966 after he returned late to their house in Calumet City, Illinois.
James Barbier was arrested at his home in Missouri on Monday and charged with first-degree murder.
Police reopened the case in 2022 and sent items from the scene, including the victim’s dress and blood-stained bedsheet, for testing, according to Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News.
The blood matched Barbier’s DNA and following his arrest he was extradited to Illinois.
Mrs Snider was stabbed about 125 times, according to the medical examiner, while her two-month-old daughter was in a crib, unharmed.
Barbier, who worked with her husband at a railroad yard, was arrested in 1966 but never charged.
The defendant who lived in Gary, Indiana, at the time, arrived home and appeared nervous and was observed by his wife to have cuts and blood on him and blood on his clothes, the state attorney’s office said.
“The defendant went inside their home right away, took off his clothes and put them in the washing machine.”
Barbier was released with maximum pretrial conditions, according to the state attorney’s office.
Barbier was ordered to not leave Missouri or Illinois, surrender his passport and firearms, and is required to report in person and by phone twice a month, the state’s attorney’s office said.
“Although the charge is detention eligible, based on the age of the defendant, his physical infirmity, and recent caselaw on this pointed issue concerning the Pretrial Fairness Act and of posing ‘a real and present threat,’ the State is not filing a petition to detain,” the state attorney’s office explained.
It was not clear if Barbier has an attorney and he faces another court hearing on 21 May.
Source: 
news.sky.com
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