DNA On Coca-Cola Can Solves Colorado Murder Case From The '80s

A can of Vanilla Coke helped Colorado police solve a case from the early '80s, reports 9NEWS.

Thanks to new technology known as genetic genealogy, investigators were able to use the DNA found on the Coke can to identify and arrest a man for the 1981 murder of Sylvia Quayle.

The Englewood High School graduate was found dead in her Cherry Hills Village home in August of 1981. Quayle was sexually assaulted and then stabbed several times in the chest and shot in the head, according to the coroner, but a suspect was never arrested.

In 2000 a DNA sample of the suspect was sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The sample remained unidentified until January 29, 2021.

According to the Cherry Hills Village Police Department, it was matched to a Nebraska man named David Dwayne Anderson.

An investigator traveled to Cozad, Nebraska on January 17 to secretly collect DNA from Anderson, according to 9NEWS.

After recovering two trash bags from Anderson's apartment complex dumpster, a Vanilla Coke can, a Great Value water bottle, a Spiced Rum bottle, and a Michelob Ultra bottle were submitted for DNA testing.

When the lab results came in a week later, they showed that DNA from the Vanilla Coke can matched several items found at the Quayle crime scene.

Police arrested Anderson on February 10. District Attorney John Kellner said Anderson will be prosecuted under laws that were in place in 1981, the year of the murder.

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