An Oregon man has been arrested in the 1987 slaying of a 6-year-old Vallejo boy after a cold case review turned up new DNA evidence, the Solano County District Attorney's Office said.
Investigators arrested Fred Cain III at his home in Central Point, Oregon, on Monday, the district attorney's office said.
The child, whose name was withheld by prosecutors, was abducted near his home. Four days later, his body was discovered on Sherman Island in Sacramento County. An autopsy found that he had been sexually assaulted, prosecutors said.
Shawn Melton was charged with murder and kidnapping "as he appeared to have knowledge only the person responsible for the child's death would know," the district attorney's office said in a statement. "The case was later dismissed after a jury could not reach a verdict."
Advances in DNA technology have subsequently exonerated Melton and implicated another person, according to the district attorney's office.
Cain waived extradition and will be transferred to Solano County to face charges of murder with special circumstance allegations of kidnapping and sodomy, prosecutors said.
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