Police solve 50-year-old Iowa cold case killing

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say they have solved the 50-year-old killing of an Iowa teen but not before the suspect died of old age. The Gazette reports that relatives of Maureen Brubaker Farley long suspected George Smith was her killer. Two teenage boys found her body in 1971 in a wooded ravine in what is now Tait Cummins Park. Cedar Rapids police interviewed Smith in 1971 but did not have the evidence to charge him. Recently, DNA technology that wasn’t available at the time of the killing allowed police to confirm that Smith was Farley’s killer. Police said this week that the case was closed with no prosecution because Smith died in 2013 at age 94.