A cold case Garland murder from 1986 has finally been put to rest.
In 2023, investigators finally identified and tracked down a man in New Mexico for the 1986 killing of a woman in her Garland home. This week, 86-year-old Liborio Canales pleaded guilty to murdering his sister-in-law nearly 40 years ago.
Canales was caught using something called Genetic Genealogy, which matches a relative's DNA to that of a suspect.
On November 7, 1986, Barbara Carr Villarreal was stabbed to death in her Garland home. The blood collected at the scene was saved in evidence and helped crack the case.
Prosecutor Leighton D'Antoni says once they arrested Canales, they settled on the plea for two main reasons.
"One would be because the case and the evidence were so strong against him," said D'Antoni. "The second would be a combination of his age, being 86-years-old, accepting a 20-year sentence is basically a life sentence for him."
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