GRAND JUNCTION, CO (AP) -- Western Colorado authorities have identified the victim of an unsolved 1986 slaying as a 55-year-old man with ties to Texas.
The Mesa County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday it identified Bill Ray Adkins from fingerprints taken when he was arrested in Texas in 1984.
Investigators say new technology recently gave them access to the fingerprints for the first time.
It wasn't immediately known what charge he faced in Texas or where he lived.
His body was found in an irrigation ditch near a transient camp in July 1986. The coroner said his injuries were consistent with trauma from a fight.
Authorities took DNA samples and distributed a sketch but his identity remained unknown.
No suspects were ever identified.
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