A Kern County man is behind bars in Ventura County, after being arrested for a more than three decade old murder.
John Clark Russell is accused of the March, 1979 killing of Alma Zuniga, of Oxnard.
The 23 year old mother disappeared, and her body was later found buried in an agricultural field on North Rose Avenue.
Zuniga had been sexually assaulted, stabbed, and shot. Detectives at the time were unable to solve the case.
But, a Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Cold Case Unit began re-examining the evidence a few years ago.
Because Russell had spent time in prison, his DNA was in a national database, and detectives say they used it to link the Bakersfield man to the killing.
