PRINCE WILLIAM, VA (Rocktown Now) — Virginia State Police announced that they have closed a 52-year-old homicide investigation.

Spokesman Matt Demlein reported that 33-year-old Shirley Washington of Washington D.C. was found murdered in Conway Robinson State Forest outside of Gainesville on December 8th, 1973. 

She had eight stab wounds at the time of her death.

Investigative work from Special Agents has now determined that her husband, Clarence Washington, was involved in her death.  

Clarence Washington died in 2013 at age 68, and the Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office has stated that if not for his death, the case would have been prosecuted.