Page 8 - William Deroos News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy was a suspect at one point.

Officials say a discarded cigarette found near the body of a 24-year-old Vermont school teacher nearly 52 years ago helped lead investigators to an upstairs neighbor who they say strangled her in her apartment.

A 52-year-old cold case in Vermont has been solved thanks to DNA retrieved from a discarded cigarette butt left next to the body of the victim, police said.

Officials say a discarded cigarette found near the body of a 24-year-old Vermont school teacher nearly 52 years ago helped lead investigators to an upstairs neighbor who they say strangled her in her apartment. Burlington Police said Tuesday that DNA evidence and dogged investigative work led them to William DeRoos, the man they say killed Rira Curran in July 1971.  DeRoos, who was 31 at the time, lived two floors above Curran in a Burlington apartment building. DeRoos died in 1986 of a drug overdose in San Francisco. Burlington Police Detective Lt. James Trieb, the commander of the Detective...

At a Tuesday morning press conference, police said advances in DNA testing helped lead them to Curran’s killer, identified as William DeRoos. Curran was found dead in her Burlington apartment on July 20, 1971. The suspect died in California in 1986, according to police.