(CNN) — For nearly 40 years, the identity of the person who sexually assaulted and killed a 30-year-old woman found along a quiet stretch of rural highway south of Denver eluded investigators. Now, small pieces of preserved evidence – a pair of paper bags placed over the victim’s hands – have provided the answer authorities had been searching for: a DNA match to one of Colorado’s “most prolific serial killers,” officials said Tuesday.

“Obtaining a viable DNA profile from paper bags nearly four decades old is exceptionally rare and underscores the extraordinary value of meticulous evidence preservation,” the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Rhonda Marie Fisher’s body was found on April 1, 1987 off a highway embankment near Sedalia, Colorado, the sheriff’s office sai

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