After 28 years of no answers, DNA has helped solve the cold-case homicide of a floral designer and mother of two who was raped, bludgeoned to death and left face down in a north Spokane alley in 1997.

Spokane police announced Wednesday that they believe 45-year-old Margaret Anselmo’s killer was a Pend Oreille man, identified as Brian James Anderson, who died by suicide in 2009.

Anselmo’s body was found in a snowy alley on the fringes of downtown Spokane at 714 E. Pacific Ave. Police believed she was the victim of an apparent random act of violence. Her cause of death was due to blunt force trauma to the head.

A passerby in the afternoon discovered Anselmo lying face down under an abandoned semitruck trailer and found no signs of life, according to previous reporting from The Spokesman-R

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