A four-decades-old cold case homicide has been solved by the Wichita Falls Police Department.
In a press conference on Monday afternoon, Detective John Laughlin announced a break in the case of Richard Michael Willoughby, a man from Hamlin whose body was found at Lake Wichita in 1980, Wichita Falls news station KFDX reports.
According to KFDX, Laughlin said a suspect has been identified as Daniel Adolf Edwards, who is awaiting extradition from Georgia.
Laughlin told KFDX that while Edwards was in prison in 1993, he admitted that he murdered a man in Wichita in 1980. His account of the murder matched the way Willoughby's body was found.
New technology allowed the Wichita Falls Police Department to compare DNA from Edwards's hair to hair found on Willoughby's body.
The department is still waiting on the results from the hair sample, but a warrant for Edwards's arrest has been issued and he is awaiting extradition back to Texas, KFDX reports.
This arrest comes months after the Wichita Falls Police Department implemented a new strategy in hopes of better solving some of its cold cases. According to KFDX, the department had created its first dedicated cold-case division, allowing them to focus on investigating cold cases, missing people or homicides, full-time.
