After 28 years of no answers, DNA has helped solve the cold-case homicide of a floral designer and mother of two who was raped, bludgeoned to death and left face down in a Spokane alley in 1997.

The Spokane Police Department announced Wednesday that they believe 45-year-old Margaret Anselmo’s killer was a Pend Oreille man identified as Brian James Anderson, who died by suicide in 2009.

Anselmo’s body was found by a delivery driver on the afternoon of Jan. 3, 1997 in a snowy alley on the fringes of downtown Spokane at 714 E. Pacific St. Police believed she was the victim of an apparent random act of violence. Her cause of death was due to blunt force trauma to the head.

The driver discovered Anselmo lying face down under an abandoned semi-truck trailer and tried to check for signs

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