Suspect in 1991 slaying of 17-year-old girl arrested

MALDEN, Mass. (AP) — A suspect in the slaying 30 years ago of a 17-year-old girl in Massachusetts has been arrested and faces arraignment on Thursday, authorities said.

Rodney Daniels, 48, of South Fulton, Georgia, faces a murder charge in the July 1991 shooting death of Patricia Moreno in Malden, according to a statement Wednesday from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Malden police Chief Kevin Molis. He was arrested earlier this week.

It was not clear if he had an attorney.

Moreno was found in the early morning hours with a gunshot wound to the head on the fire escape of her foster family’s third-floor apartment, authorities said.

Daniels dated one of her foster mother’s daughters and was at the apartment at the time of the shooting, according to the statement. He told investigators he had been asleep when he was awakened by gunfire.

Investigators determined Daniels had been in possession of guns around the time of the killing and had “engaged in threatening behavior toward the victim,” but no one was charged.

He was arrested based on new evidence collected by the district attorney’s cold case unit, including the account of a building resident who described seeing someone fitting Daniels’ description on the fire escape, authorities said.