Shasta County detectives have arrested a man in Tucson, Arizona, in the 40-year-old killing of 18-year-old Terrance “Terry” Arndt and the rape of an 18-year-old woman near Burney in 1984.
Arndt and the woman were talking in his car on Mountain View Road near Burney High School late on Dec. 14, 1984, when an unknown man approached. Investigators say Arndt shielded the woman as the gunman opened fire, then sexually assaulted her several times before fleeing. The woman drove for help, but Arndt died at a hospital.
Shasta County deputies spent thousands of hours on the case without finding a suspect. Last year, detectives used forensic genetic genealogy through Othram, a Texas-based lab, and secured grant funding from the Roads to Justice program to re-examine DNA evidence. The new testing pointed to Roger Neil Schmidt Sr., who was 23 and living in Burney at the time of the crime and resembled the original composite sketch…