Alan Smith, 56, is scheduled to appear by video in an Oshawa courtroom next Wednesday, according to court records. The Cobourg man was remanded in custody after an appearance in an Oshawa bail court Tuesday.
Mr. Smith is accused of second-degree murder in the killing of 22-year-old Beverly Smith, who died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Her body was found in her home on the evening of Dec. 9, 1974, by a neighbour alerted by Ms. Smith's husband, a GM worker who became worried when he got no answer when he called home from work.
Alan Smith is not related to Beverly Smith but was described by police as a neighbour and acquaintance of the woman. He moved from Raglan "a number of years ago," said Durham homicide Detective Leon Lynch.
Police converged on a Munson Crescent home in Cobourg on Monday to arrest Mr. Smith, who was among the dozens of people interviewed during the initial investigation of the killing. Police aren't saying how or when the break in the puzzling case came, but Det. Lynch said the arrest was the result of an intensive review of the case beginning "from Square 1" that was launched last May.
During the recent probe police conducted numerous interviews and also asked people to submit to DNA testing, an investigative method not available to detectives at the time of the event.
Ten detectives and officers from other units participated in the investigation, in which police tracked down people interviewed more than 30 years ago. Some of those interviews led investigators to other links, Det. Lynch said.
Police also made an appeal to the public for information at a news conference attended by Ms. Smith's twin sister and the slain woman's daughter, who was 10 months old when the killing occurred.
The women made emotional appeals for information, saying they hope to lay to rest the pain caused by the unsolved murder.
Ms. Smith was found on the floor of her home just metres away from the crib in which her daughter was sleeping; Ms. Smith had been writing Christmas cards when her killer arrived, police said.
Police thought from the beginning the killer was a local person because no one in the tight-knit community reported seeing anything amiss on the night of the murder. And while the charge laid doesn't imply the slaying was premeditated, police believed the culprit came armed.
"Whoever came brought a firearm with them," Inspector Dave Kimmerly told reporters at a news conference in early February.
The murder weapon was never found, he added.
Although an arrest has been made police said the investigation continues.
