A 70-year-old man has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with a 33-year-old cold case from southern Illinois, authorities announced.

The breakthrough came through forensic genealogy DNA analysis, which allowed investigators to identify a suspect in the 1993 murder case that had remained unsolved for more than three decades.

Investigators spent decades pursuing various leads and repeatedly reviewing evidence in the case, but were unable to identify a perpetrator until the recent DNA advancement.

Forensic genealogy has become an increasingly important tool for law enforcement in solving cold cases, using DNA evidence to build family trees and identify potential suspects through genetic databases.

The arrest represents a significant development in a case that investigators had continued to work on despite the passage of time. Specific details about the victim and circumstances of the 1993 murder were not immediately available.