Placentia Police Announce Arrest In 1995 Cold Case Murder

PLACENTIA (CBS) — A 16-year-old cold case murder has been solved, Placentia police announced Thursday.

Placentia police have arrested Raymundo Gutierrez Pereda, 70, in the 1995 murder of Mary Ann O'Neil, 53.

O'Neil's body was found bludgeoned to death on Nov. 17, 1995 in the trunk of her Infinity, two days after she disappeared.

One day after the murder, police tried to question Pereda, who rented a room in O'Neil's home, but he fled.

The case was reviewed again in 2009. Pereda's California driver's license fingerprint was run through a data base and a match was made to a 2005 drunken driving arrest in Las Vegas. He had been living there under the alias Efren Calderon Castro.

Pereda was finally located and arrested on Oct. 26.

He will be arraigned Friday. Pereda is being held at the Orange County jail on $1 million bail.