A serial killer may have been responsible for the decades-old slaying of a girl, Georgia authorities said after conducting DNA analysis.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday that investigators are reasonably confident serial killer Paul John Knowles killed 13-year-old Ima Jean Sanders in August 1974.
Sanders' family submitted DNA to a database to match unidentified remains with missing person cases. State authorities this week matched the DNA with remains found in 1976 in a wooded area in Peach County in the central part of Georgia.
Investigators say another piece of evidence was a letter detailing Knowles' confession. Knowles says he picked up a girl about Sanders' age in 1974, and then raped and strangled her in a wooded area.
Knowles killed at least 18 people before he was shot to death.
