WICHITA, Kan. – A Wichita, Kansas, man has been arrested in the 1979 slaying of a woman in Weld County, Colorado, authorities announced Friday.

James Herman Dye, 64, was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on Monday after Weld County authorities linked him to the death of Evelyn Kay Day, 29.

Dye was charged in Colorado with two counts of first-degree murder and is awaiting extradition from Kansas.

Day’s body was found in her car by co-workers on Nov. 27, 1979, near the campus of Aims Community College in Greeley, where she worked.

Day was beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled with a belt from her overcoat, Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams said during a news conference Friday.

Dye had taken a class at the college, authorities said.

The case was reopened in May, and DNA evidence linked Dye to the crime, authorities said.

Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke said Day faced two murder counts based on whether he intended to kill Dye, or killed her during the commission of another felony, specifically sexual assault.

Dye was a convicted felon with lengthy criminal records in Colorado and Kansas, the Greeley Tribune reported.