Almost 27 years after the death of Sarah DeLeon, left, police arrested Carolyn Heckert in connection with the case. (Fox 4)
More than 25 years after a college student's body was found stabbed to death near railroad tracks in Kansas City, Kansas, police arrested a 48-year-old woman in connection with the case.
The U.S. Marshals Service took Carolyn Heckert into custody Wednesday in Clay County, Missouri, police told Fox 4. Heckert was held on $1 million bond in the killing of 19-year-old Sarah DeLeon shortly after Christmas in 1989.
Investigators gave few details about Heckert, but they previously said they believed the suspect had some kind of relationship with DeLeon's boyfriend, KMBC reported. Police have said DeLeon was on her way home after seeing her boyfriend.
Police also said in May there may have been a link between DeLeon's killing, the unsolved 1994 slaying of Diana Marie Ault in Independence, Missouri, and an abduction in 1987. They did not explain why they'd reached that conclusion.
New DNA collection and testing technology prompted police to reopen the DeLeon case in July 2014.
A train crew spotted her body with stabbing injuries ad a head wound near Interstate 435 in Kansas City. Investigators found her car earlier in the day with a door open and its emergency flashers on, The Kansas City Star reported,
Sarah DeLeon "was outgoing. She was friends with everybody. She didn't have any enemies and she was a lot of fun to be around," her brother, Matt, told Fox 4 during a vigil in 2014.
The woman was a Kansas City Kansas Community College student and worked as a racetrack usher at the time of her death, the newspaper added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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