More than three decades after an elementary school teacher was found dead just a mile from where she taught, investigators are using new DNA technology to reopen the case.
On Halloween night in 1993, 39-year-old Cherilyn Hawkley was discovered dead inside her minivan near Granite Bay.
Hawkley was an elementary school teacher at Eureka Elementary and a mother of three. A rope was found near her body, and her vehicle remains the only known crime scene.
Despite years of investigation, the case went cold.
Now, advances in forensic science are giving detectives new tools to re-examine key evidence.
"In this case, there is a lot of evidence gathered from the scene," said Elise Soviar with the Placer County Sheriff's Office. "That evidence is now being flagged and retested by the Department