DNA points to suspect in woman’s 1989 slaying

San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials announced Wednesday that after reopening a 1989 cold case -- the sexual assault and slaying of a 67-year-old woman in Hesperia -- DNA evidence found at the scene points to the one-time prime suspect.

After Helen Davidson was found dead at her home in May 1989, investigators arrested Davidson’s groundskeeper and handyman, Darrin Keith Brown, who had moved into a spare room in the house the previous week.

Brown was released because of a lack of evidence, but when the DNA sample was resubmitted last fall, investigators found a strong likelihood it was Brown’s. Brown is incarcerated in Pennsylvania and officials plan to extradite him for prosecution on the murder charge.