A Bakersfield long haul truck driver has been charged with first-degree murder for strangling a young woman with a telephone cord in 1979. Prentice Foreman is also suspected of sexually assaulting Dawn Koons in her apartment on South Real Road.

Police Chief Lyle Martin says they id’d Foreman as the suspect after two detectives reviewed the case in 2012 and were able to match his DNA to a crime scene sample in 2015.

Police and the District Attorney’s office would not say how the victim and suspect knew each other, but they may have been living in the same apartment building.

Kelli Pierce