Patty Scoville

It takes money.

These things took time, and we didn't have the funding.

But suddenly, in 2005, seven years after the database was established and 14 years after Patty was murdered, there finally was a match.

I was flabbergasted.

After testing 80 people and following up on 1,000 leads, investigators had a name.

Howard Godfrey, a 59-year-old window installer who had served time for assault.

Cindy McGuire is Vermont Assistant State's Attorney.

We wanted to know everything about him before we sat down to interview him.

His DNA was taken in 2000 when he was released from prison.

Why was he in the database?

As a result of the conviction from 1996 for the aggravated assault.

But before police could make an arrest, the law, which the Scovilles helped pass, required police to reconfirm the source of the DNA.

But investigators couldn't risk just walking up and asking for a sample.

They needed to find a secret way to get Howard Gottfried's DNA.

So they staked out his window business.

So you knew he was a smoker through your surveillance?

Yes.

We were able to surreptitiously gather his discarded cigarette butts.

police bagged and tagged the cigarettes and sent them to the lab for testing.

This time, the DNA results came back a lot quicker.