DNA tests on a speck of blood found at the scene of the murder in Co Antrim of a church organist more than 20 years ago today finally convicted her killer.
Ms Vera Waring (82) was found brutally murdered and sexually assaulted after failing to turn up to play the organ at church in Bushmills on New Year's Eve 1981.
A major investigation into the murder which shocked the small village community failed to identify the killer - though police had their suspicions.
The file remained open but it was eighteen years before police looking into other unsolved murders in the area used the latest advances in DNA testing to take a fresh look at a speck of blood found at the scene of the killing and still preserved in their records.
A positive test led to 47-year-old laboratory assistant Stephen Shepherd, who lived a few miles along the Co Antrim coast from Bushmills at Castleton Park, Portstewart, being unanimously found guilty of the murder.
It was a ground-breaking case, never before had DNA dating back so far been used to obtain a murder conviction in Northern Ireland.
Speaking after the trial at the crown court in Ballymena, Co Antrim, Inspector Alan Cole, who was largely responsible for cracking the case, said: "We are obviously delighted, absolutely delighted.
"It was one of those cases which had been hanging over the heads of the people of Bushmills for so long".
He added: "It just shows those who have committed serious crimes they can always be caught. It signals to the people of the province we are still working on cases, we are not just sitting back - we are closing in.
PA