In 2001, while working as a reporter for the Longmont Daily Times-Call, I wrote this lead to a story:

Who is getting away with murder?

According to a sheriff's investigator, Longmont resident Kevin Elmarr is.

As of Monday, Jan. 29, that may no longer be true.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle announced the arrest Monday of Kevin Elmarr after a 20-year investigation into the death of his ex-wife, Carol Murphy.

Elmarr, 49, of Longmont, is now being held at the Boulder County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

The original story I wrote was part of an investigative series the Times-Call launched in 2001 detailing unsolved homicides.

We took what some believed was quite a risk with this story because we were publicly naming a man who hadn't been arrested. Elmarr had also become known as a dedicated member of the Longmont Emergency Unit, a volunteer squad that helped local police agencies in rescues and traffic control.

In fact, as a lot of our readers pointed out, our paper ran an unrelated photo of Elmarr handling some of his emergency duties shortly after the article naming him as a homicide suspect came out.

And while Elmarr seemed to live a quiet life in Longmont long after the death of Murphy, the case still gnawed at Boulder County Sheriff's Sgt. Bob Meals, who retired last year.

According to Meals, this case was solved and all of the evidence pointed to Elmarr.

Hikers found Murphy's naked body in Lefthand Canyon on May 23, 1987, partially hidden under aspen leaves.

According to Meals and an unsigned 1989 arrest affidavit, Murphy had told coworkers that she was going to the mountains to have sex with her ex-husband, she was last seen riding on the back of his motorcycle, traces of blood were found on his motorcycle and Elmarr's current wife knew details about the homicide that weren't disclosed.

The coroner and investigators ruled that Murphy died of strangulation after having consensual sex with a male. And while a sperm sample was taken from Murphy's body, the DNA evidentiary procedure in 1987 was relatively new and the sample at the time was considered too small. In 2001, District Attorney Mary Lacy told me in an interview that she would welcome the chance to revisit the evidence and see what new technology could add.

It looks like the sheriff's office had that DNA reexamined this year. Read the entire sheriff's press release here: http://www.co.boulder.co.us/newsroom/templates/?a=736&z=2

While researching this story in 2001, I tried numerous times to get Elmarr's side of the story. I called him on the phone. I knocked on his door. He refused to speak to me. His wife told me at the time that there was nothing to the story.

His lawyer said that Elmarr maintained his innocence and was harassed by deputies.

The Times-Call, and this story in particular, won several investigative journalism awards that year. While I was proud of the work we had done, the fact the case was still lingering out there bothered me.

But not as much as it bothered Bob Meals.

We'll see how it turns out.

Read story of the arrest here.