SANFORD, Fla. — Seminole County's sheriff says they've arrested a man for a murder that happened 33 years ago.
- Deputies arrest Daniel Emitt, 58, in 1986 murder
- He is accused of killing 38-year-old Eveline Aguilar
- Sheriff Dennis Lemma said DNA helped them find Emitt
- More Seminole County headlines
Sheriff Dennis Lemma announced the arrest of Daniel Emitt Thursday, in the 1986 murder of Eveline Aguilar.
Emitt, 58, was arrested in Knoxville, Tennessee Wednesday.
Lemma says Aguilar was 38 when she was found dead at the San Jose apartments. Investigators say she had been sexually assaulted and her throat had been slashed.
“This was a brutal homicide, it was… very tough to look at these photographs again," the Sheriff said.
Lemma says detectives looked at all of the evidence time and time again since the murder happened -- the DNA, the fingerprints -- but never with any new leads.
That was until just last year, when the Sheriff’s Office had the Florida Department of Law Enforcement re-analyze some of the evidence. And for the first time, investigators had a suspect.
“We found out Daniel Emitt had become a suspect in a Melbourne crime, and during that process submitted to DNA testing, and now his information was in a database," Lemma explained.
DNA was used to find the suspect. Lemma says as technology advances, it's important to revaluate all of these cold cases.
Auguilar’s family has been waiting for years for justice. That’s now possible because of the Sheriff’s team of volunteer retired detectives and a stockpile of saved evidence.
“We’re never going to let go of any evidence we gather. And not only are we not going to not let go of any evidence, we’re not going to stop opening these cases, as difficult as it may be,” Lemma said.
Daniel Emitt is expected to be brought back to Seminole County in the near future to face murder charges. All the while, the Sheriff’s team of volunteer detectives are actively working five other cold cases, hoping to make more arrests soon.