A breakthrough in a 41-year-old murder case came after Rhode Island investigators tailed a man to a rock concert and collected his DNA from a water bottle that he had discarded, the authorities said on Tuesday.
The suspect, William Morton, 61, was charged on Tuesday with first-degree murder in the death of Hillary Hellewell, who was 22. She had been sexually assaulted and killed in Newport, R.I., in May 1985, the authorities said during a news conference.
Mr. Morton appeared in court on Tuesday for an arraignment and the case was referred to the public defender’s office, according to court records. The office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
He had been recently identified as a suspect through new DNA testing, as part of a review of “cold cases,” the Newport police said in a news release.
According to the Rhode Island attorney general’s office, investigators tailed Mr. Morton and his wife on a date in August. The couple ate dinner at a Burger King before attending a performance by the Bad Animals, a group that pays tribute to the rock band Heart.
At the concert, at the Stadium Theater in Woonsocket, R.I., Mr. Morton bought popcorn and two bottles of water, the authorities said. Investigator Michael Naylor said at the news conference that he watched Mr. Morton take a swig from the water bottle and leave it on an empty seat.
After the couple left, Mr. Naylor retrieved the bottle. The DNA on it was consistent with a sample found on Ms. Hellewell’s pants, said Peter Neronha, Rhode Island’s attorney general.
“Healing is a process without a defined end, but nevertheless, victims and their loved ones deserve answers and ultimately justice,” Mr. Neronha said in a news release.
Ms. Hellewell, of Jamestown, R.I., had attended a party with some friends in Newport, Mr. Neronha said. She left with a “heavily intoxicated man” whom she offered to walk home, he said.
Her body was found near the Newport Public Library on May 19, 1985, at about 4:15 a.m. by two brothers headed to work, Mr. Neronha said.
“I thought she had passed out and my brother went over to check to see if she had a pulse, but he couldn’t find one,” one of them, Stephen Foss, told The Providence Journal in 1985.
The medical examiner determined that Ms. Hellewell had been sexually assaulted and died from asphyxia due to strangulation, Mr. Neronha said.
Investigators found a blue shirt at the scene and collected and preserved “biological samples” from it and Ms. Hellewell’s clothes, although the state did not have DNA testing at the time, he said. The police in Newport interviewed the intoxicated man with whom Ms. Hellewell had left, as well as others at the gathering, but could not identify a suspect, he said.
In reviewing the case in 2004, the Newport police submitted Ms. Hellewell’s clothes for DNA testing to an F.B.I. database, “due to extensive advancements in DNA technology.” Biological material from her clothes was tested against samples retrieved from the men at the May 1985 party, including the man with whom she had left, but the authorities did not find a match, Mr. Neronha said.
The authorities did, however, determine that the DNA found on the blue shirt was “consistent” with a sample found on Ms. Hellewell’s pants, he said.
The case was reviewed again in 2023. DNA evidence was submitted to a private laboratory, “which led to a new forensic lead and the identity of the suspect in 2026,” according to the Newport police statement.
The Newport police served a search warrant on Tuesday in Smithfield, R.I., and arrested Mr. Morton, a news release said.
Kirsten Noyes contributed reporting to this article.
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