(WWJ/AP) A Florida man who murdered a woman in southwestern Michigan more than 30 years ago is finally facing justice.
Robert Waite, 50, was charged in the 1986 slaying of Wanda Wilkinson, after prosecutors say DNA evidence linked him to the crime he committed when he was only 16 years old.
Wilkinson was strangled in her home on Alexander Street in Bangor, southeast of South Haven, in what investigators said was an apparent break-in. When she didn't show up to work, police said, her employer called her daughters who then discovered her body.
The cold case went unsolved for decades, until -- using new DNA technology -- Michigan State Police said they identified Waite as the suspected killer.
WWMT-TV reports Waite pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony murder as a juvenile defendant.
The Van Buren County Prosecutor's Office says that under a plea agreement, Waite faces 25 to 60 years in prison.
"He will be sentenced as an adult, but because he was under the age of 18 at the time of the killing, he will be sentenced under the new guidelines for juvenile defendants who are 16-17 at the time a crime is committed," said Van Buren County Prosecutor Michael Bedford.
Investigators extradited Waite to Michigan from Florida, where he was in prison on an unrelated conviction of kidnapping and sexual battery in 2007.
Sentencing is set for Oct. 19.
