DNA Hidden on a 1982 Fingerprint Card Finally Helps Solve Teen Girl’s 1978 Murder

Nearly 50 years after 16-year-old Corina Contreraz was brutally murdered in Montana, investigators have identified the man they believe was responsible, thanks to DNA recovered from an unexpected source: an old fingerprint card.

Corina was last seen at a birthday party in Billings on December 22, 1978. Around 3 a.m., she left to walk to her boyfriend’s home, just eight blocks away. She never arrived.

Hours later, a school bus driver discovered her body several miles away. Investigators determined that the teenager had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 18 times.

Despite years of investigation and numerous leads, the case remained unsolved for decades. Detectives examined possible suspects among her family members and acquaintances, but none of the early inquiries produced a breakthrough.

The investigation took a new direction in 2024, when genetic genealogists began analyzing the evidence and tracing a possible suspect’s family connections. Their work eventually led authorities to Angelo James Stallsmith Sr., a local welder who died in 1990 at the age of 41.

Although Stallsmith’s DNA had been entered into a national database in 2002, investigators had not obtained a match. Because he had been cremated after his death, obtaining a new DNA sample from his remains was impossible.

Investigators then considered an unusual alternative: fingerprint cards preserved from his previous arrests.

A genetic analyst successfully extracted DNA from a fingerprint card dating back to 1982. That material provided the crucial link investigators needed to identify Stallsmith, according to the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities announced the breakthrough in September 2026, bringing a decades-long investigation to a significant turning point.

Investigators believe Corina’s murder was a crime of opportunity. While the identification may help answer questions that have haunted the community for generations, the case also demonstrates how advances in forensic science can uncover evidence that once seemed lost to time.

For Corina, who was only 16 when her life was taken, the breakthrough came almost half a century later. An overlooked piece of evidence had finally helped investigators put a name to a case that had remained unresolved for decades.

Source: PEOPLE