As Josh Hawley would say, "You can run, but you can't hide."

I wonder how a person can commit a crime in 1975 and walk around until 2022 without being arrested. How does it feel? Do you look over your left shoulder all the time? Do you panic whenever the phone rings or someone knocks at the door? 

And is it almost a relief when that knock comes from someone with handcuffs on their belt and an arrest warrant in their hand? I have to wonder.

I'm not saying this guy is guilty, y'unnerstand, but Lancaster County Police up in Pennsylvania do, so let's see how the trial comes out.  And to think, it was a coffee cup that might have sealed his fate.

Last Sunday, Lancaster County arrested David Sinopoli, 68, and charged him in the 1975 killing of Lindy Sue Biechler. Mrs Biechler was murdered - stabbed to death - at age 19 in the apartment in Lancaster she shared with her husband.

This was a cold case for years, but only because detectives had run down every lead. Never did they give up on solving it, but advanced DNA and genealogy research made Sinopoli became the prime suspect.

"This case was solved with the use of DNA and specifically DNA genealogy and quite honestly without that, I don't know that we would have ever solved it," Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams said at news conference.

Sinopoli and Biechler

It was December 5, 1975, when Biechler's aunt and uncle stopped by her apartment in the Spring Manor Apartments in Manor Township to exchange Christmas cookie recipes, and found what Ms Adams described as a horrific scene. The victim was stabbed 19 times. There were defensive wounds, and DNA evidence was gathered, although it would be another ten years before DNA testing became a part of crime detection.

An organization called Parabon NanoLabs solved another cold case, so investigators asked if they could use the evidence from the Biechler case.

Interestingly, that DNA led Parabon to look for people with ancestry around the Gasperina section of Italy. Parabon investigator CeCe Moore found 2,300 people with Italian ancestry in Lancaster County in late 1975.

Examining public records, old newspaper archives, and more, Moore winnowed down the list of candidates, leading her to point to Sinopoli as the lead suspect. Sinopoli had never been thought of as a possible suspect before.

Detectives went to work. They found that Sinopoli had lived in the same apartment complex at the time of the murder.

And he was still living in the area. Police needed a DNA sample to clinch their case, and got one while doing surveillance on him. They followed him to the Philadelphia airport and snagged a coffee cup that he tossed away.

As Lennie Briscoe would have said on "Law & Order," he should have switched to decaf...and taken the cup. DNA match. Bonk bonk.

"This has been a never-ending pursuit of justice for Lindy Sue Biechler that has led us to identifying and arresting David Sinopoli," Adams said. "Lindy Sue Biechler was on the minds of many throughout the years. Certainly law enforcement has never forgotten about her. And this arrest marks the first step in obtaining justice for Lindy Sue Biechler and holding her killer responsible."

Sinopoli is being held without bail on one count of criminal homicide.