There is relief for a Worcester family after police arrested a suspect in New York Tuesday two decades after the murder of their grandmother.
The tragedy has since motivated the victim's grandson to help other families.
Detective Bobby Johnson was 18 years old when he visited his first crime scene. The victim, his 78-year-old grandmother, Lillian Johnson, was stabbed to death in July of 1984.
"Love her, miss her a lot," Bobby Johnson said. "She was a great beautiful woman."
For the next couple of decades he made a career of catching criminals, without the satisfaction of seeing his grandmother's killer caught.
But now there's a possible break in the case with a piece of evidence detectives preserved back in 1984 -- a sample of someone else's blood found on Lillian Johnson's body.
"You have to understand that back in '84 when investigators were taking the evidence from the crime scene, DNA wasn't even on the radar back then," said Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst with the Worcester Police Department.
Craig Manggia was on the radar in New York after he was recently forced to give up a DNA sample when he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
Police said his sample matched the sample detectives had found on Johnson's body 23 years ago.
"I'm sure she's looking down smiling," Bobby Johnson said. "She was a strong woman."
For police, it is inspiration to never give up on those cold case files and no one feels that more than Detective Johnson.
"It makes you want to come to work and solve other cases. We still have open murder cases," he said. "There are still victims out there."
But for now, there's a certain satisfaction in Worcester headquarters this week -- at least one case they used to call "cold" may finally be on the verge of closing.
