SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Nebraska man has been formally charged in a Utah cold case homicide from 1982.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office says 55-year-old Bryan Reed of Sioux City was charged Friday in 3rd District Court with criminal homicide, second-degree murder and aggravated burglary.
Reed is being held on $1 million bond in Nebraska’s Dakota County Jail as he awaits extradition to Utah.
It was unclear Sunday if he has a lawyer yet.
The Deseret News reports Reed was 17 years old in August 1982 when he allegedly entered 72-year-old Wilhelmina Reid’s home in Salt Lake City through a bathroom window.
Prosecutors say Reed allegedly struck the woman multiple times with a baseball bat for an unknown reason, then went back to his house where he washed his clothes.
Reed lived with his stepmother at the time, across the street from the elderly woman’s house.
Authorities say Reed left Utah to attend school in Nebraska the same day his neighbor was killed.
Salt Lake police collected several pieces of evidence from the crime scene in 1982, including DNA from the victim’s nightgown, footprints and fingerprints.
Court documents show DNA taken from the nightgown was tested against swabs taken from Reed and showed he was a possible contributor.
