On Easter Monday in April 1979, 51-year-old widowed nurse Myrtle Rupp was found murdered in her South Temple, Pennsylvania, home. She had been recovering from foot surgery and a neighbor who had been helping with her trash during recovery entered the house and discovered her in bed, bound with the sash cord from her living room drapes.

The case produced few leads and went cold for decades until investigators in 2007 used DNA technology to link evidence from the scene to Timothy Krajcir, a man already incarcerated for other violent crimes. Krajcir confessed to raping and killing Rupp and his confession was accepted as part of a plea to avoid the death penalty in another case.

The confession brought long-awaited answers to Rupp’s family and community after nearly thirty years without resolution.