Kim Bryant was reported missing on January 26, 1979 after failing to return home from school, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a press release. Her body was found in a desert area on February 20, 1979, police said. Bryant had been sexually assaulted and DNA evidence of a suspect was found, but police were unable to identify themselves, Lt. Ray Spencer of the LVMPD Homicide Division during a press conference Monday.
Police “investigated this case for years without being able to identify a suspect,” said Spencer, noting that several LVMPD detectives had been working to gather new leads.
DNA evidence from the case was sent after a donation from Las Vegas-based Justin Woo to Othram, Inc., a Texas-based forensic sequencing laboratory, for testing and genealogical research, police said.
“Ten days ago we were notified that the Othram Labs geological profile, based on sperm obtained from the autopsy of Kim Bryant’s body, revealed that Johnny Blake Peterson was the person who kidnapped Kim Bryant, sexually assaulted and murdered, “Spencer said at the press conference.
Peterson was a 19-year-old Las Vegas resident at the time of Bryant’s death. “He was never on the radar as a suspect for that murder,” Spencer said.
Peterson died in January 1993, police said.
Bryant’s father Edward Elliott thanked investigators for their work in a statement read by Spencer during the press conference. “Kim was a beautiful girl with a bright future and it makes me happy that something is being done to solve cases like hers,” Elliott said in the statement.
Woo, whose donation made the tests possible, offered condolences to Bryant’s family during the press conference. “We hope we’ve done a little closing for you,” he said.
CNN’s Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
