A former Nevada deputy attorney general connected to the notorious Mustang Ranch brothel was arrested Wednesday for the slaying of a 19-year-old woman in Hawaii 50 years ago.
Tudor Chirila Jr., 77, was taken into custody in Reno for the gruesome stabbing murder of Nancy Anderson in a Waikiki apartment in Honolulu’s tourist hub on the island of Oahu.
Anderson had been stabbed more than 60 times and was found in her apartment in a pool of blood on Jan. 7, 1972.
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The young woman, who had just graduated from high school, moved to Hawaii from Michigan two months prior to her murder.
The case had been reopened numerous times over the decades — including a probe into a door-to-door knife salesmen who had knocked on Anderson’s apartment the day she died.
But it was DNA evidence that finally gave investigators their break in the case.
Police obtained a DNA sample from the suspect’s son, John Chirila, in March, which confirmed that he was the biological child of a man whose DNA sample was found at the crime scene.
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Reno police used a search warrant to compel a DNA sample from Tudor Chirila on Sept. 6 in Reno. Two days later, Chirila attempted suicide.
The longtime Reno attorney ran for the Nevada Supreme Court in 1994 and served as a deputy attorney in the late 1970s.
A 1998 federal indictment identified Chirila as the CEO of a company that served as a front for Joe Conforte, the infamous brothel boss of the Mustang Ranch. He cooperated with prosecutors against Conforte, who fled the country before his trial began.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
