DNA test links man to 2001 Tacoma killing

TACOMA, Wash. -- A man accused of killing a 76-year-old woman has been charged with aggravated first-degree murder on the basis of DNA evidence nearly six years after she was raped, strangled and beaten in her home.

A DNA sample from a cigarette butt at the crime scene and two hairs found on Elizabeth Crawford's pants matched that of Joseph Anthony Neal, 32, police Detective Brian Vold.

Neal, currently behind bars in Louisiana for violating probation on a property crime conviction, had been forced to give a DNA sample after being convicted of burglary in 1995. The murder charge was filed against him Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court.

"When he's done his time down there, we'll extradite him," deputy prosecutor Gerald Costello said Wednesday.

No decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty, Costello said.

Investigators at one point thought the hairs would be matched to DNA from another man, but that was not the case, Vold said.

Neal has denied killing Crawford, telling a detective he had worked for her but had never been inside her house, according to court documents.