Discarded cigarette butt, DNA tests solve 52-year-old murder

By WILSON RING
Associated Press

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Officials say a discarded cigarette found near the body of a 24-year-old Vermont school teacher nearly 52 years ago helped lead investigators to an upstairs neighbor who they say strangled her in her apartment. Burlington Police said Tuesday that DNA evidence and dogged investigative work led them to William DeRoos, the man they say killed Rita Curran in July 1971.  DeRoos, who was 31 at the time, lived two floors above Curran in a Burlington apartment building. DeRoos died in 1986 of a drug overdose in San Francisco. Burlington Police Detective Lt. James Trieb, the commander of the Detective Services Bureau, says the case will be closed.