SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A Georgia man has been charged with strangling his estranged wife inside her Syracuse apartment nearly 30 years ago, authorities said Thursday.
Ronald Meadow was arrested Monday by police in Douglas County, Ga., on an arrest warrant for second-degree murder, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick and Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler told local media. Meadow, whose age wasn't available, was arrested at his job at a Mitsubishi plant west of Atlanta, the officials said.
Meadow's 27-year-old estranged wife, Colleen, was found bound and strangled inside her apartment on Syracuse's north side in March 1985. Police found her body after she failed to report to work.
Meadow told investigators at the time that he was driving outside Syracuse for hours during a snowstorm before his wife was slain.
The arrest came after the Syracuse Police Department's cold case squad reopened the investigation about 18 months ago. Police said DNA evidence led to a grand jury recently indicting Meadow on second-degree murder, but authorities haven't released details about the evidence.
It couldn't immediately be learned from prosecutors if Meadows had a lawyer.
Investigators had considered him a suspect since Colleen Meadow's hogtied body was found. He left Syracuse for Georgia soon after her death and has since remarried three times, twice to the same woman, Fitzpatrick said.
The prosecutor credited cold case Detective Derek McGork for his work in the investigation.
"If I lost a loved one, I would want him investigating his murder," Fitzpatrick said.
Authorities said they expect to have Meadow brought back to Syracuse before Christmas.
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