11:29am | After 25 years, cold case detectives from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department have made an arrest in the case of a young, aspiring model from Long Beach who was killed in 1985.
According to KTLA News, sheriff’s deputies said that Stafford Joel Spicer was arrested in Las Vegas Tuesday in connection with the murder of his then-girlfriend, 23-year-old Joanne Marie Jones.
Spicer was not charged with her murder at the time because there was insufficient evidence linking him to the homicide. But the case was reopened in 2009 after new DNA evidence was discovered.
Jones, a longtime Long Beach resident who dreamed of becoming a model, went missing on April 29, 1985, after spending the weekend at Spicer’s home.
Her 1978 Camaro was parked for days on the corner of First Street and Cherry Avenue before disappearing, as well.
Thirty-three-year-old Spicer, who was 10 years Jones’ senior, was arrested several days later after being spotted driving her car.
Two months later, Jones’ body was found in a remote area of Azusa Canyon. She had been stabbed to death.