Cops: He Was a Stranger— 'Until the Day of the Murder'

An arrest has been made in a killing that haunted Virginia Beach for nearly 40 years. Police say DNA evidence led them to a Connecticut man now accused in the 1986 rape and stabbing death of 22-year-old Roberta Walls, who was last seen leaving the library where she worked as a volunteer, per the Virginian-Pilot. Police reportedly believe she hung out with friends that night, May 15, 1986, before making a phone call around midnight. Her body was found hours later in a field behind an elementary school, just across the street from the Bayside Public Library. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times, according to local reports.

In 2017, investigators used preserved DNA from the crime scene to create a composite image of a possible suspect, which, along with earlier DNA samples, helped rule out a number of people. The composite suggested the culprit was a white man in his 20s at the time of the crime, with freckles, light eyes, and dark hair. Police had nothing more to go on until a recent DNA breakthrough, WAVY reports. It pointed to Charles Berry, 66, of Newington, Connecticut, who was not previously considered a suspect and was "unknown to Roberta until the day of the murder," Virginia Beach Deputy Police Chief Jeffery Wilkerson said Wednesday. Indicted by a Virginia Beach grand jury, Berry was taken into custody by Newington police on Monday and is now awaiting extradition to Virginia, per Fox News.