The mystery of who murdered a nine-year-old girl has been solved after 62 years.
Candy Rogers was selling sweets in her neighbourhood of Spokane, Washington in March 1959 when she went missing.
The alarm was raised when the young girl didn't return home to her parents.
A huge search operation was launched, was dozens of police officers and members of the public sent out to find her.
Tragically, a US Air Force Sikorsky H-19 helicopter involved in the search struck high tension power lines and crashed into the Spokane River.
Airman Marlice D. Ray, SSgt William A. McDonnell, and Lt Kenneth G. Fauteck were killed in the crash. Two crew members survived.
Weeks later, Candy's body was found in a nearby woods hidden underneath pine needles and brush, with a post-mortem showing that she had been raped and strangled with a piece of her own clothing.
With no a sex offender registry and lack of forensic technology, suspects were interviewed but the police never arrested a killer.
Now, more than six decades later, a sample of semen taken from the scene and recently tested narrowed down the suspect to three brothers.
Investigators contacted the daughter of one of them, John Reigh Hoff, whose DNA sample strongly suggested a match.
Police decided to exhume the body of the now deceased Hoff, and matched his DNA with that of the semen found at the scene.
Hoff was 20-years-old at the time of Rogers' murder and lived about a mile from her in the West Central neighbourhood.
He had joined the Army at age 17 and two years after Candy was murdered he was convicted of assaulting a woman, according to a police press release.
Hoff was found to have forcibly removed the victim's clothes before tying her up and strangling her.
Luckily the victim survived, leaving Hoff with a six month prison sentence and discharge from the army.
He spent the rest of his life as a door-to-door salesman and worked at a lumber yard until he committed suicide at the age of 31.
"It took the determination of a community, the evolution of technology, and the perseverance of generations of detectives to finally solve the mystery surrounding the horrific killing of Candy Rogers. 62-years-later there is finally some semblance of closure," the police statement read.
