Investigators say crime lab improvements aided arrest of Alabama man in 24-year-old Georgia murder

LAFAYETTE, Ga. — A 63-year-old man has been arrested in Alabama in the 2000 murder of a northwest Georgia woman.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Walker County Sheriff's Office announced on Friday that they have charged Clerance D. George with murder and aggravated assault in the June 2000 death of Julie Ann McDonald.

McDonald, a pharmacist, was found stabbed to death in her home in LaFayette, Georgia, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Chattanooga.

In a Friday news conference, officials said a combination of better crime lab technology and traditional police work had allowed them to conclude that George had killed McDonald.

Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson said George was arrested in Birmingham on Aug. 22 and awaits extradition to Georgia. George remained in the Jefferson County jail in Birmingham on Monday and it's unclear if he has a lawyer to speak for him.

George was initially identified as one of four or five suspects in the case, said GBI Special Agent in Charge Joe Montgomery, in part because George was found with McDonald’s checkbook in neighboring Catoosa County.

“It was not a stranger crime,” Wilson said. “They knew each other.”

Montgomery declined to discuss what motive George may have had for killing McDonald.

The agencies said the case was reinvestigated in 2015-2016, but tests on evidence could not then identify a suspect. The case was reviewed again over the last two years, with Montgomery saying lab testing linked evidence to George.

“It’s getting better every day,” Montgomery said of technology. “It gives us hope for some of the other cases that we couldn’t solve, 20 or 30 years ago, we have that ability now.”

Wilson said McDonald’s nearest surviving relatives are a niece and a nephew, who have been notified of the arrest.

“We've been working on this case — it's 24 years old and we never give up on these cold cases," he said.