Florida police say they have solved the 1980 murder of a 43-year-old nurse who was brutally raped and murdered in her home. incarcerated convict and serial killer.
Advances in DNA technology led police to Ronald Eugene Richards, the man accused of killing 32-year-old Evelyn Fisher-Bamforth last week, cops said.
“I think this is a serial killer,” Miramar police Det. John Zeller, at a press conference announcing his arrest on Friday, According to WSVN. “There may be other cases.
Zeller declined to provide details about the DNA trace to solve the case, but said the investigation into Richards is ongoing.
Police say a psychiatric nurse was home alone in bed when he broke into her trailer, raped her and then beat her to death.
Her husband, John Bamforth, is now 77. This was reported by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel he remembered rushing past the police on his way home that evening more than forty years ago.
“That’s when I saw what I saw,” he told the paper. “Furniture is broken, pillows are broken. Then I went into the back bedroom and we had a California King…at least half of the bed was covered in blood.
However, the police were never able to prove that he was the killer, and a few months later he was charged with the same rape and attempted murder in nearby Volusia County.
Richards, now 75, was eventually convicted of attempted murder in 1982 and was released from prison in May 2020.
He was charged with murdering Fisher-Bamforth last Friday and is in an Ohio jail awaiting extradition to Broward County, Florida.
The victim’s elderly husband said the development provided some relief but brought back painful memories.
“But for Evelyn, justice is the most important thing,” he said.