Cold case murder of teen babysitter is finally solved after nearly FIVE DECADES after cops uncovered crucial new evidence in brutal stabbing case

The cold murder case of a teenage babysitter who was brutally stabbed to death has finally been solved after nearly five decades. 

Police in Colorado Springs uncovered crucial new evidence using genetic genealogy DNA to identify a suspect in the gruesome murder. 

Maria Loraine Honzell, 14, was found dead with multiple stab wounds to her chest and neck on February 7, 1977.

She was babysitting two children, aged six and eight, for a neighbor at the time, and they were home when she was killed but unharmed. 

Authorities used new technology to analyze DNA from the night, and they are confident William Charles Kernan Jr, who died in 2010, was the one who murdered Honzell. 

Maria Loraine Honzell, 14, was found dead with multiple stab wounds to her chest and neck on February 7, 1977 

Authorities used new technology to analyze DNA from the night and they are confident William Charles Kernan Jr (pictured), who died in 2010, was the one who murdered Honzell

Honzell was babysitting two girls for her neighbor on the night she was murdered. 

When the mother of the children arrived home after 11:30 pm, she found the teenager dead in a bedroom. 

Autopsy results from the time revealed that Honzell had multiple stab wounds to the chest and a significant one to the neck. 

But limited methods at the time meant no suspect was identified until decades later due to advancements in DNA technology.

The DNA profile of a man was developed from the bloodstain on Honzell's blue jumpsuit, but after looking through the Combined DNA Index System, no match was found. 

However in 2019, investigators went to Parabon NanoLabs for genetic genealogy DNA analysis using public commercial DNA databases.

The Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office was asked to look at the case using the genetic genealogy results that identified Kernan as a suspect

It led authorities to Kernan after 'extensive research.' However, he was cremated and had no living relatives, so they were not able to use his DNA to confirm he was the suspect from Honzell's case. 

The police were able to find out he was 'a student at a local college and an acquaintance of the woman Maria Honzell had been babysitting for on the night of her murder.'

Their investigation also revealed Kernan had been at the apartment complex previously.

The Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office was asked to look at the case using the genetic genealogy results that identified Kernan as a suspect.

'After the review was completed, the District Attorney’s Office is confident the person responsible for the murder of Maria Honzell is William C. Kernan, Jr,' a police spokesman said. 

'The family and friends of Maria Honzell have waited over 47 years to get justice for Maria.'