OGDEN, Utah -- Law enforcement officials in Alaska have arrested a man in connection with a homicide and a sexual assault he allegedly committed in Ogden in 1993.
Ogden police said a DNA sample taken from one of the victims led investigators to Stephen Phillip Ellenwood.
Ellenwood, 40, is accused of assaulting 92-year-old Mae Odle at Adam's Place, a retirement home in Ogden, on May 3, 1993.
Police said the suspect climbed through the ground level window of room 105 at Adam's Place and assaulted Odle around 2 a.m.
An employee of the retirement home walked into the room to check on Odle and saw the suspect "doing up his pants," according to a press release.
The suspect then fled, partially-dressed, the release said.
Police said Odle was transported to a local hospital, where she died six days later as a result of blunt force injuries she sustained to her head, chest and extremities.
A few hours later, the press release said, a suspect matching the same description sexually assaulted a 57-year-old woman, identified only as E.B.
The second assault occurred around 5 a.m. near a bus stop on the 500 block of 23rd Street in Ogden, two blocks away from Adam's Place.
An extensive investigation was conducted in 1993, but was initially unsuccessful.
The case was reopened in 2003 by Major Crimes Cold Case Detectives. DNA evidence collected from the second assault was sent to the Utah State Crime Lab at that time.
On October 12, 2012, the Utah State Crime Lab notified Major Crimes Cold Case Detectives that the DNA received in 2003 had been matched in a combined DNA indexing system (CODIS) database maintained by the FBI.
Major Crimes Cold Case Detectives conducted additional extensive investigation, which led to an arrest warrant and Ellenwood's capture.
Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said an Ogden PD detective was in Alaska and involved with Ellenwood's arrest.
