Investigators have identified a suspect in a LaPorte County homicide that went unsolved for more than 45 years.

Juanita Boyd was reported missing in February 1981 after she failed to return to her La Porte home. Six days later, her green Pontiac was found stuck along a rural lane in Coolspring Township. Boyd’s body was inside the trunk. Her death was ruled a homicide caused by asphyxiation.

Investigators preserved evidence, including an undergarment that later yielded a DNA profile. After years of testing and the use of forensic genealogy, authorities say the DNA matched Carl “David” Phillips.

Phillips lived in La Porte County at the time of the murder and died there in 2017. The prosecutor’s office says Phillips would have been charged with Boyd’s murder if he were alive. Investigators say the identification brings answers to a case that had remained open for decades.