A 48-year-old man has been indicted in connection with a slaying that occurred nearly three decades ago, police said Tuesday.
Boyd G. Johns is being held at the Pima County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with the strangulation death of Marion Van Bibber in 1978, according to a news release from the Tucson Police Department.
Van Bibber, 56, was found dead Oct. 2, 1978, inside his apartment in the 4500 block of South 11th Avenue, according to Arizona Daily Star archives. He was partially clothed and had an electrical cord around his neck.
He was discovered by a co-worker who went to Van Bibber’s home after he failed to show up for work at Pima Welding, where he was a book keeper, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
Four days later, Van Bibber’s truck was found abandoned in La Puente, Calif., he said.
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Homicide detectives at the time were unable to identify any suspects and the case went cold.
In 2006, the case was reviewed and assigned to the Tucson Police Department’s cold case detail because there was still viable evidence that could be analyzed, Pacheco said.
That evidence was sent to a lab and was matched to Johns who was already listed in a DNA database, he said.
Tucson police declined to say where Johns was arrested, but the Arizona Department of Corrections Web site indicates that the day he was booked into the Pima County jail — Feb. 20 — he was released from prison where he was serving a three-year sentence for aggravated DUI.
Johns grew up in Los Angeles and has family in La Puente, Pacheco said. He has also lived in Sacaton, Ariz.
He is being held on a $250,000 bond in connection with the first-degree murder charge. However, he is being held without bond on another charge of prosecution of writ.
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