Nearly 40 years later, the mysterious murder of a pregnant woman has been solved

On Thursday, police arrested 65-year-old Robert Yniguez for the murder of Teresa Broudreaux — almost four decades after her death.

65 yr old Robert Yniguez arrested in 1980 murder of Teresa Broudreaux. LASD says DNA cracked the case. Story at 6pm @nbcla pic.twitter.com/4M3pzet4CM

— Angie Crouch (@AngieNBCLA) September 30, 2017

In 1980, Broudreaux’s naked corpse was discovered on a California beach. The cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell said that they’ve been tracking Yniguez for a long time and that DNA evidence finally added up enough to make an arrest. The suspect is a registered sex offender, who spent eight years in prison for rape two years after Broudreaux’s murder, KABC reports.

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Broudreaux had just married Ronnie Fematt and was pregnant with their daughter. He still remembers the day he had to identify her body, recalling, “It’ll never be out of my brain what I had to witness. And, to know that there was a person out there that could do this to a pregnant woman. It tore me up. It still does.” Fematt said he won’t be completely at peace until somebody is behind bars for the murder and mentioned that people often suspect him of the crime.

Authorities believe that the attack was random but sexually motivated. Sheriff McDonnell declared, “Now, with technology we have today, if you think you’re going to do something and be able to get away with it, the chances are much less than they were in the past.”

Yniguez is is facing a murder charge and will appear in court on Monday.