Sylvia Quayle cold case: Coke can leads to arrest of 1981 murder suspect

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. (TCD) -- 

Sylvia Quayle's family got closure earlier this month after police in Colorado issued a warrant for a Nebraska man's arrest for Quayle's 1981 murder. Police announced David Dwayne Anderson's arrest on Thursday.

Cherry Hills Village Police announced in a press conference Thursday that David Anderson was arrested in Cozad, Nebraska on February 10 on charges of first-degree murder. He was awaiting extradition to Colorado.

Cherry Hills Village Police said they tied Anderson to the murder through a DNA sample run through new sequencing technology that matched DNA found at the crime scene.

KUSA-TV reports investigators searched in January through two of Anderson's trash bags and submitted a Vanilla Coke can, a Great Value water bottle, a bottle of spiced rum, and a bottle of Michelob Ultra for DNA testing. The can of Vanilla Coke reportedly matched the DNA found at the crime scene of Quayle's 1981 murder.

YouTube: Cherry Hills Village Police Department Sylvia Quayle cold case press conference

Quayle's father discovered Sylvia's unclothed body at her Cherry Hills Village residence on August 4, 1981.

According to police, Quayle, who was 34 at the time of her death, was sexually assaulted and then strangled, stabbed, and shot. KUSA reported that the loss of blood from the stabbing was the primary cause of death and the gunshot secondary.

Arapahoe County District Attorney John Kellner said Anderson will be charged on first-degree murder as it existed in 1981. In 1981, a first-degree murder conviction meant life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years. Now, according to District Attorney Kellner, a conviction of first-degree murder carries the penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In 1983, Ottis Toole confessed to killing Quayle, KUSA reports, and was charged with first-degree murder. Arapahoe County dropped the charges in 1993 after genetic material found on a rug in Quayle's home did not match that of Toole. Authorities came to question numerous confessions Toole, described as a "drifter," made, and many cases were eventually dropped.

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