SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Detectives have arrested a suspect in a 27-year-old murder in Balboa Park and the suspect is due to be arraigned Thursday, authorities said.
On Sept. 4, 1999, golfers found a body in the bushes in the 1800 block of Golf Course Drive and called police. Responding officers located a dead woman, later identified as Diane Ayres, a 23-year-old San Diego resident, according to the San Diego Police Department.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office determined she was strangled.
Over the years, cold case investigators re-examined forensic evidence, which ultimately led to the identification of Christopher Creek as the suspect, authorities said.
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The SDPD worked closely with the FBI and the San Diego County District Attorney's Office throughout the investigation. Creek, 52, was found at Dodge State Prison in Chester, Georgia, where he was serving a sentence for an unrelated offense.
On June 16, he was arrested on a San Diego homicide warrant by the Laurens County Sheriff's Department and transferred to the Laurens County Jail.
Creek was extradited to San Diego on Tuesday and booked into Central Jail. He was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.
Authorities urged anyone with further information to call the SDPD Homicide Unit at 619-531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
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