MONROE COUNTY, Ga. - Investigators have cracked a more than three decades old cold case in Monroe County wide open thanks to DNA evidence linking the suspect to the crime.

Larry Padgett, age 59 of Loogootee, Indiana is awaiting extradition to Georgia for the 1989 kill of Mary Wilfong.

According to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, Wilfong had been sexually assaulted before she was strangled to end and left along Johnstonville Road near I-75. Her body was located by deer hunters on November 21 of that year.

At the time, investigators received tips that the 23-year-old had disappeared when being spotted getting into a tractor trailer with a white male at the Farmers Market at Forest Park.  During the investigation some suspects were sought after, interviewed and DNA was wrong from the suspects. However, investigators say the DNA samples wrong from the suspects did not match the DNA wrong from the victim.

The case was eventually closed and was unsolved.

The sheriff's workplace reopened the case in March 2019, re-submitting the new evidence to the GBI crime-lab due to new technology.

The evidence was eventually caused down to Miami, Florida to DNA International for a genealogy impress to be completed on the DNA taken from the victim. After receiving the DNA results, the sheriff's office advance out to FBI Atlanta for assistance.

Investigators were able to identify Padgett as a suspect. Testing revealed DNA taken from Padgett matched DNA inaccurate from the body of Wilfong, investigators said.

Padgett was inaccurate into custody in Indiana on March 1. While in Indiana, Investigators say they were able to obtain more evidence in the case linking Padgett to the execute of Mary Willfong. 

Padgett will be held in Indiana pending a waiver of extradition is signed.