Colorado Springs police on Wednesday announced that a cold case murder of teenager Maria Honzell more than 47 years ago was finally solved.

Thanks to the use of genetic genealogy, William C. Kernan, who died in 2010, was identified as the person responsible in the death of Honzell, who was 14 when she died on Feb. 7, 1977.

“Because (Kernan) died in 2010, the investigation into the murder of Maria Honzell will be closed out as exceptionally cleared,” Caitlin Ford, a spokesperson with the Colorado Springs Police Department, said at a news conference.

According to previous coverage by The Gazette, on the night of Feb. 7, 1977, Colorado Springs mother of two Janey Kusleika arrived home to find her babysitter, Honzell, dead with multiple stab wounds in her apartment bedroom along North Nevada Avenue. The two boys Honzell was babysitting, the children of Kusleika, were asleep and unharmed at the time police were called at around 11:20 p.m.

Reports state Kusleika and Honzell were neighbors and lived in the same apartment complex along the 5400 block of Nevada Avenue.

Kusleika told authorities she had spoken to Honzell on the phone just a few hours earlier, and that nothing seemed out of the ordinary at the time of the conversation.

One of the boys told police he had gone to sleep at around 8 p.m. but was awoken sometime later by commotion inside the apartment. He told investigators he saw a teenage boy in an apparent struggle with Honzell, holding her mouth shut.

The boy said he heard yelling and “stop it” before the two entered Kusleika’s bedroom. He described the suspect as being approximately 17 years old, 6 feet tall with acne, and wearing a “fluffy” coat and jeans, previous reports state.

An autopsy report conducted in the days following Honzell’s death determined she had died as a result of multiple stab wounds to the chest and a substantial wound to her throat. A homicide investigation was immediately launched by the department.

Aside from the boy’s witness statement, leads in the case were sparse and the investigation went cold for decades until the department’s DNA breakthrough.

Ford said while Kernan was named in initial investigation efforts, he wasn’t considered a suspect around the time of Honzell’s death.

While the case remained cold for decades, DNA technology advanced. Although the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found no direct match from the male DNA profile discovered on the clothing Honzell wore the night she died, the department’s cold case unit continued its search for answers.

In 2019, the police department contacted technology company Parabon NanoLabs to conduct a genetic genealogy analysis of the unknown male DNA sample discovered on Honzell’s clothing.

“As time passed and technology progressed, it became clear that this case had the potential to move forward using genetic genealogy,” said Tracey Thompson, a detective with CSPD’s cold case unit.

According to department officials, Parabon was able to develop and submit a genetic data profile of the unknown male DNA sample to the public database as a way to find individuals who “share significant amounts of DNA with the unknown subject,” officials said.

Five years later, investigators found their match, and Kernan was identified. It was determined he was a student at a local college at the time of Honzell’s death, and was an acquaintance of Kusleika — the woman Honzell was babysitting for.

Prior to the Honzell investigation, the department has successfully used genetic genealogy in solving three other cold cases, according to Thompson.

According to Kernan’s obituary, he was 61 at the time of his death in Cheyenne Wells, located on the Eastern plains near the Kansas border. Kernan  was survived by a multitude of family members. He died of natural causes, officials said.

With no clear signs of a break-in reported from the scene at the time of the initial investigation, the motive behind Honzell’s attack and why Kernan arrived at the apartment remain unclear.

Family members of Honzell in attendance Wednesday were emotional as members of the department among other law enforcement officials discussed the closing of Honzell’s case.

David Honzell, Maria’s brother, addressed the room Wednesday morning, expressed gratitude for the department’s work and shared the family’s wishes for privacy .

“I’ve been on the phone at least once a week for the past five years calling, looking for updates,” David Honzell said.

“Short and sweet, I appreciate you respecting our privacy. I would like to thank the whole department.”

“This is a long time coming,” CSPD Chief Adrian Vasquez said .

“Maria was a vibrant and beautiful 14-year-old girl who deserved so much more life. I am very grateful that you trusted us (CSPD) and we were able to solve this case,” Vasquez said.

Throughout the four decades CSPD detectives strived for justice in Honzell’s homicide, Thompson estimates more than 15 detectives spent time on it — not including patrol officers, investigators with the CBI and lab technicians who spent time piecing together evidence and developing forensic connections that went into identifying Kernan.