A rape kit from 1994 led to an arrest in the 43-year-old’s murder, authorities say

A rape kit from an alleged 1994 crime has led to the arrest of a 43-year-old man in a California murder, authorities said Wednesday.

Investigators believe Harold Carpenter, 63, killed Patricia Carnahan in 1979, the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office in California said.

Carpenter was identified after recently testing a 1994 rape kit from an alleged sexual assault in Spokane, Washington, and his DNA was found to match evidence collected from Carnahan’s body, the district attorney’s office said.

On September 28, 1979, his body was found at a Lake Tahoe campground.

He was not identified until 2015, when the case was re-examined, according to the DA’s office.

Her body was exhumed, and relatives recognized a pendant she was wearing and matched her DNA, according to the DA’s office.

Spokane’s rap kit was tested as part of a nationwide effort to address a backlog of tested kits, the prosecutor’s office said. When the sexual assault occurred, it was deemed “unprovable,” the office said, and the victim has since died.

Spoken by the police That in 1994, Carpenter was arrested and charged with second-degree rape, but the case was dropped and charges were never formally filed. The kit was submitted for testing last year, it said.

Carpenter was arrested Monday at his apartment in downtown Spokane, police there said.

He is being held in Spokane County as a fugitive, according to online jail records. He faces a murder charge in California, according to the DA’s office.

It was not immediately clear Wednesday night whether Carpenter had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

This article was originally published NBCNews.com