LOS ANGELES (TCN) -- A 63-year-old man has been charged in the cold case of a woman who was found dead in a drainage ditch in 1996. 

On Feb. 9, Brian Walton was charged with one count of murder with the special allegation of murder during the commission of a rape and murder during the commission of sodomy, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.

Claudia Guevara, 23, was last seen alive on Feb. 20, 1996, when two colleagues dropped her off at a bus stop. She lived with her brother and he reported her missing when she failed to return home from work, according to the DA’s office. Her body was found the following day in a drainage ditch 9 miles away. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed in the neck. 

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said, “The victim’s family has waited for an agonizing 30 years to get that call to let them know their loved one’s killer had been found and charged.”

KTLA reports Walton was identified as a suspect through DNA evidence, but authorities did not reveal how they had his DNA profile.

If convicted, Walton faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole, according to the DA’s office. A decision to seek the death penalty will be made in the future.



L.A. man charged in 1996 cold case of naked woman found fatally stabbed, sexually assaulted in drainage ditch