DNA test results in arrest

DNA testing resulted in the arrest of an Arizona man this week in the 1976 slaying of an Englewood woman.

Roy Adkins, 48, of Phoenix, was arrested Wednesday in Arizona. He was being held without bond on a fugitive charge in Maricopa County (Ariz.) Jail on Thursday. He faces a murder charge in Colorado once he is extradited.

"Though justice in this case may have been delayed, it appears that it has not been denied, thanks to the hard work of the Englewood Police Department and capital crimes investigators in the Department of Law," said Attorney General John Suthers.

On Feb. 15, 1976, the nude body of Lina Viola Ginter, 57, was found in her bed by a roommate in an apartment at 2812 S. Delaware Street. A pillow was over her head, and the cause of death was reported as asphyxiation. Ginter was a special education teacher at Denver's Asbury Elementary School.

Adkins, then 17, was a suspect in Ginter's death, since she was last seen leaving a party with him and an associate, according to Englewood police. However, he provided an alibi and was never charged.

Semen found on Ginter's body was resubmitted to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for advanced DNA testing in 2005, according to Nate Strauch, spokesman for the Attorney General's office.

It matched the DNA in a blood sample from Adkins in 1976, prompting Englewood police to re-open the Ginter case.

Adkins has an extensive criminal record in Colorado. He served four years in prison for a 1981 aggravated robbery charge, and has been arrested numerous times for burglary, assault, theft, and disturbing the peace over a 20-year span, between 1976 to 1996. Most of the arrests occurred in Denver.