Worcester News

A New York man was arrested Tuesday at his Bronx apartment in connection with a 23-year-old murder case in Worcester, police officials said.  

New York detectives arrested Craig Minggia at his apartment on East 179th Street in Bronx, N.Y., after DNA testing linked him to the stabbing death of 79-year-old Lillian Johnson in Worcester.  

Johnson was stabbed multiple times in her chest on the evening of July 15, 1984 or the early morning hours of July 16, 1984, autopsy reports concluded.    

Her body was found a day later when her son went to her apartment on Freeland Street.  Police said based on evidence, the crime was sex-related, though Johnson had not been raped.  

Blood samples belonging to someone other than Johnson were taken from the crime scene and were sent to the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory for analysis, and in 2004, the evidence was entered in the combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.    

"You have to understand back in '84 when investigators were taking evidence from the crime scene DNA wasn't even on the radar screen back then," said Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst of the Worcester Police Department.

Earlier this month, Worcester police detectives were told that the DNA evidence they submitted matched a sample from New York belonging to Minggia, who had supplied a DNA sample after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old victim in New York in May.    

"It's a great piece of evidence from a prosecution point of view," Hazelhurst said. "It gives you hope that these cold cases never close because advances in technology keep them open and keep hope alive."

Police said Minggia had been interviewed by detectives during their routine neighborhood canvas after Johnson had been murdered, but they didn't link him to the killing at the time.  He was living in an apartment one floor above Johnson's apartment.    

At the time of Johnson's murder, Minggia was a student at Clark University.