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Longtime suspect finally convicted in Connecticut double-homicide from 1987

A man has been convicted for a double murder that took place in 1987 in Connecticut. The man has been a suspect for a long time, but new DNA evidence helped convict the suspect.

Thirty-five years after a man and his adult son were found with their throats slashed in their Connecticut home, a longtime suspect was convicted Tuesday in the killings, prosecutors said.

Willie McFarland was found guilty of murder in the deaths of Fred and Greg Harris, New Haven prosecutors said.

"Today’s jury verdict is the result of a 35-year quest by dedicated investigators and prosecutors who never gave up their search for justice for the victims of these horrendous crimes," State's Attorney John Doyle Jr. said in a release.

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Messages were sent to McFarland's lawyers. The 55-year-old faces sentencing Jan. 31.

Fred Harris, 59, and Greg Harris, 23, were found, dead and bound, in their Hamden home on Aug. 27, 1987.

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McFarland quickly became a suspect and was questioned soon after the killings. But for years, authorities had no physical evidence to link him to the crime, though they continued to look, conducting DNA testing around 2006.

Then, in 2018, a new round of DNA testing on a glove found at the scene found that it was "at least 1.5 million times more likely" than not that McFarland was one of four contributors, authorities said at the time.

He was arrested in 2019.

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