DNA has led to an arrest in a 1998 homicide in Aurora, the Police Department said this afternoon.
Kevin Lewayne McKinney, 39, a state prison inmate, faces first-degree murder charges in the death of 47-year-old Diane Juanita Caldwell, whose body was found by a passing motorist in a ditch near South Buckley Road and East Ohio Avenue on Nov. 23, 1998.
Aurora re-established its cold-case unit last July and this is the first charge to be filed, according to a press release from Aurora police.
In 2002 the cold-case unit was disbanded due to a lack of staffing, according to the department.
McKinney has a lengthy arrest record and is currently serving a 72-year sentence imposed in 1999 after he was convicted in Arapahoe County of attempted murder, robbery and other charges, according to public records.
McKinney was one of three men arrested for robbing an Arapahoe County supermarket, shooting the manager and then wounding a bystander during their getaway.
He was arrested twice before on sex assault charges, records show.
