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On the day after Christmas in 1980 Sandra DiFelice, 25, was brutally raped and murdered in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas police carefully collected vital evidence from under the dead woman’s fingernails. But the DNA technology that would ultimately solve her murder was decades away from developing. 

Homicide detective, Las Vegas Police Lt. Jason Johansson announced an arrest in the cold case. On Halloween, the suspect, Paul Nuttall, was arrested and taken into custody. 

“I am hopeful that in some way, shape, or form this provides some sort of closure for the family,” Johansson, said at a news conference.

Cold case heats up

The murder case was cold for forty years. 

In February 2021, DiFelice’s daughter asked the police to review her mother’s case. She was hoping that the advances in DNA technology would make a difference.

At the time of the murder DiFelice and her daughter shared a home in Las Vegas with a roommate. The roommate was out of town for the holidays. And the name of the roommate was never disclosed.

Her daughter was only 3-years-old at the time of the killing. And was spending the night at her grandparent’s home. 

The house where DiFelice lived was only a few blocks from the command center of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. And officers who responded to the scene found evidence that the woman was sexually assaulted before she was killed.

Woman murdered in Las Vegas fought back

There was evidence that the murdered woman fought back. She had scratched her assailant. And DNA from under her fingernails would ultimately point to a suspect.

After police and the DNA lab reviewed the case, “they were able to determine that there was additional evidence that could be submitted for processing using new DNA technology,” Detective Johansson said.

The evidence collected from under the victims' fingernails was tested using new DNA technology that was not available until recently.  

Las Vegas police arrested the suspect, Paul Nuttall, 64, last week.  He has been charged with murder, sexual assault and burglary, police report.

According to reports he had been a suspect in the original investigation. Although his fingerprint was found at the crime scene, he was friends with the murdered woman’s roommate. And had been in the house before.

The alleged killer never left Las Vegas. And is being held without bail.