Police have finally put a 27-year-old murder to rest. 

Raymond Charles Rowe — a Pennsylvania DJ known as "DJ Freez" — pleaded guilty to raping and murdering 25-year-old elementary school teacher Christy Mirack. She was killed inside her Lancaster home while getting ready to head to work in 1992

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Mirack suffered a broken jaw due to be strangled, and there was evidence of a sexual assault. Police believe she was attacked with a wooden cutting board that was found near her body. 

After she didn't show up to work for days before Christmas, the principal of the school she worked at went to her home and found her body.

There was DNA left at the crime scene, but it never triggered a match. That is until Rowe's half-sister submitted her own DNA to use a popular genealogy database, and it led police to the now 50-year-old suspect, who was only living a few miles away from the decades-old crime scene.

It's still unclear if Rowe and Mirack knew each other, but in 1992 he lived only four miles from the apartment she was murdered in. 

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Police said he may have targeted her after seeing her sunbathe outside of her apartment. There was also a ticket to a club in her wallet where Rowe worked back in 1992.

In court on Tuesday, Rowe apologized for killing Mirack before he was sentenced to life without parole. 

Raymond Rowe faces Christy Mirack’s family and says tearfully “I’m sorry sir, to the family, I can’t imagine what you’re going through, I apologize.”

— Katelyn Smith (@KatelynWGAL) January 8, 2019

"I'm sorry sir," he said while wiping his eyes away with a tissue. "I can't imagine what you're going through. I apologize."

He never confessed to police and only said he had heard about the murder.

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Emily Blackwood is a writer and editor living in San Diego. She covers all things pop culture, news and true crime.