The cold case murder of a 20-year-old Kansas woman 34 years ago was solved earlier this year using "cutting-edge" DNA technology, the Wichita Police Department announced in a Monday news conference. 

DNA evidence was collected after the Oct. 2, 1989, sexual assault and beating murder of Krista Martin, 20, but testing wasn’t available at the time, nevertheless, it was "carefully preserved," Kris Gupilan, the public information officer with the department said.

Over the years, DNA samples were compared to potential suspects with no match found and in 2009, a suspect profile was created through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) — but no match was found. 

In 2021, a dedicated investigative genetic genealogy team that consisted of an FBI special agent and a Wichita police homicide detective was created and this last April — with the help of private industry genealogists to scrutinize DNA profiles and getting DNA samples from his relatives — a man named Paul Hart was identified as the suspect. 

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"The Wichita Police Department remains steadfast in its commitment to identifying suspects in violent crimes and providing support for victims and their families," Gupilan said. "We pledge to continue our unwavering dedication to cold case investigations."

He said the department determined that Hart would be charged with Martin’s murder if he was still alive, but he died in a car crash in 1999. 

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"As he is deceased this case is now considered cleared," Gupilan said. 

Ember Moore, Martin’s niece thanked the investigators who solved her aunt’s murder at the press conference. 

"On behalf of my family and myself I would like to say thank you to the Wichita Cold Case Unit and the Wichita Homicide Department for all their hard work and dedication to Krista’s case," Moore said. "I am glad we can finally move forward and have peace knowing that Krista’s murderer is not walking around free or among us … She deserved so much more out of this life than what she ended up with." 

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Police didn’t elaborate on what relationship, if any, Hart and Martin might have had, except that they were neighbors at the time of her death. 

Italy has impounded the Spanish charity rescue ship Open Arms for violating rules by Italy's right-wing government banning multiple rescues at sea, the charity said Thursday.

The boat is blocked from leaving the port of Carrera in Tuscany for 20 days and the charity has been levied a fine of between 3,000 and 10,000 euros ($3,200-$10,500), the charity Open Arms said.

Open Arms called the sanctions a violation of the law of the sea that requires boats to rescue people in distress. It said it was being punished for rescuing 176 people in three operations, including people of "extreme vulnerability."

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Italy assigned a port after the first two rescues of 69 people in international waters Saturday. Open Arms said it then received a mayday call from the Seabird aerial surveillance charity that another migrant boat was in danger, overcrowded with 109 people.

After ascertaining its ship was the only rescue boat in the area, Open Arms said, it informed authorities that the craft would head to the overcrowded vessel, which was about 20 nautical miles, or two hours sailing, away.

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The charity said its captain was questioned for six hours and the boat was impounded after arriving in Carrera, the port it had been assigned.

The government made no statements about the action. Premier Giorgia Meloni is in Granada, Spain, for a summit where she is pushing her European Union partners to come up with policies to block illegal migration across the Mediterranean Sea from northern Africa.

It is the second time that the Open Arms ship has been temporarily impounded. It and two other charity rescue boats were impounded over three days in August.

Meloni has vowed to take "extraordinary measures" to deal with an influx of migrants. According to Interior Ministry statistics at mid-September, nearly 126,000 people had arrived in Italy so far by boat this year, compared to 66,000 in the same period of 2022.