A 77-year-old man was arrested in Nevada after DNA evidence linked him to a deadly stabbing that occurred in Hawaii more than 50 years ago, police said.
Tudor Chirila Jr. was taken into custody on Tuesday in connection with the murder of Nancy Anderson, who was stabbed multiple times in her Waikiki apartment on Jan. 6, 1972. Her roommate, asleep in another room when the carnage occurred, discovered Anderson’s body the afternoon after she was killed, KHON reported.
Under the impression that Anderson had already gone to work, her roommate decided to investigate when she heard water running in their bathroom, leading her to Anderson’s bloody remains. A preliminary search of the apartment also turned up blood in the bathroom, on Anderson’s bed, and on the floor where her body was found.
Bloody towels were also discovered in the apartment complex where the killing occurred.
Nancy Anderson and Tudor Chirila Jr. (HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT; RENO POLICE DEPARTMENT)
Anderson was a McDonald’s employee who graduated from a Michigan high school two years before her death, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. She was 19 at the time.
A medical examiner later found that she had 63 stab wounds on her body, according to an affidavit in the case.
For years, investigators chased leads and interviewed potential suspects, including a pair of knife salesman who visited Anderson’s home the day she was killed. The case eventually went cold, but authorities finally got a break in 2020, when they enlisted the help of Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based company specializing in forensic DNA analysis. They were able to link Chirila to the crime through DNA evidence found on the towel, according to Hawaii News Now.
Just days after they collected his DNA, Chirila attempted suicide. He survived the attempt and remained behind bars on Thursday at the Washoe County Detention Facility. In the 1970s, he worked as an attorney in Honolulu and a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii, just blocks away from Anderson’s residence.
Copyright © 2022, New York Daily News
Copyright © 2022, New York Daily News