Through recent DNA analysis, the Sacramento Police Department has identified Carl Eugene Blackwell as the suspect in a 1976 homicide. 

On September 4, 1976, the Sacramento Police Department responded to investigate the murder of a 60-year-old female.  The victim was found strangled in her hotel room in the 1100 block of 7^th Street.  Homicide detectives processed the scene, interviewed witnesses, collected evidence and later exhausted all possible leads.  The motive pointed toward robbery and for thirty-six years the murder went unsolved. 

In March of 2011, Sacramento police cold case detectives submitted evidence from the victim's autopsy kit to the Sacramento County District Attorney's Crime Lab for DNA analysis.

On July 30, 2012, detectives received notification of a DNA hit identifying Carl Eugene Blackwell.  Detectives immediately began looking into Blackwell's whereabouts, and discovered that he had passed away on October 10, 2004 in Sacramento, California.  Blackwell was 22-years-old when the murder occurred and research showed that he was a resident at the hotel during the time of the murder. 

This is Sacramento Police Department's fourth cold case solved through DNA this year.