Suspect identified in 1971 Vermont murder case

over 50 years later Rita Curran's family is finally getting some closure after her rape and murder in this Burlington apartment on Brooks Avenue. This is our case and this is our sister and she's always with us. Curran was killed in July 1971 by a man police now say was William DeRuse. He lived in an apartment above Curran with his then wife. The couple was interviewed three times in the decades-long investigation. William DeRuse told the police officers that they were home. They didn't hear anything and didn't see anything.

Recently a team of Burlington detectives say they were able to finally link DeRuse to DNA on a cigarette butt found next to Rita Curran's body. It was then matched to DNA on her torn clothing and a comparison with DNA on public ancestry databases matched to several relatives of DeRuse. Given all these information our detective bureau myself the chief we're all confident that William DeRuse is responsible for the aggravated murder of Rita Curran. Police say Curran put up a quote vicious struggle but they're unable to arrest DeRuse for her murder as he died before they were able to identify him. Today William DeRuse would be 83 but there is not a cop in this building who would not happily put handcuffs on him. Instead he died in San Francisco in 1986 15 years after murdering Rita. Now former senator Patrick Leahy who was the chitted in County State's attorney when Curran was killed feels for her family and their loss.

I did a lot of crime scenes have been a lot of war zones and seen terrible things but this one is made in my memory the longest. Like he says the family will still have to live with us. I don't think so much about the guy who did this as I do about Rita and my parents what they went through. I pray to my parents and I pray to Rita. My wife Nancy tells me we will get through this. We are Curran strong. In Burlington Sid Bule NBC 5 News.

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