Killing of 14-year-old babysitter solved nearly 50 years later, police say

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV/Gray News) - Police announced Wednesday that the killing of a 14-year-old babysitter nearly 50 years ago has finally been solved through use of DNA from the crime scene.

On Feb. 7, 1977, Maria Honzell was found stabbed to death at the home where she was babysitting.

“The woman who had hired Maria to babysit at the Suncrest Apartments off of North Nevada notified the Colorado Springs Police Department that she’d found Maria dead of stab wounds on the floor,” the Cold Case bio on Maria reads. “She had contacted Maria earlier in the evening and everything was OK, but she did not return home until later that night, to find Maria.”

Police said the case was solved using DNA found at the scene of the killing and matching it with other samples in a public genealogy database.

Some blood collected from Maria’s jumpsuit was later discovered to belong to a man.

In 2019, Colorado Springs Police Department reached out to a lab to help with locating a suspect. The blood evidence was submitted to Parabon Nanolabs, a DNA phenotyping service, and they found a match.

A profile was created and compared to a public database, which resulted in the identification of the suspect, William Kernan Jr., who police say died in 2010 of natural causes.

Kernan was a student at a local college who officials said was an acquaintance of the woman for whom Maria was babysitting. Officials added that their investigation revealed Kernan had been to the apartment complex on multiple occasions.

District Attorney Michael Allen spoke about the work that went into the case over 47 years.

“We don’t stop searching for justice for victims. If there is someone out there that has committed a crime, that hasn’t been caught yet; we’re looking for you,” he said. “We are going to use every technology that develops over time to find you and bring you to justice.”

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