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After 28 years, justice may finally be served in the death of Saba Girmai, a Santa Clara County woman who was found strangled to death in a Mountain View Dumpster in 1985, according to the Mountain View Police Department and the county district attorney.

Investigators used the state's DNA database to link 53-year-old Daniel Garcia of Fresno to the murder of Girmai, who was 21 years old when a passerby discovered her body on Jan. 18, 1985, in a Dumpster behind the Bailey Park Plaza shopping center at 570 N. Shoreline Blvd., a police press release said.

The case, which remained cold for more than two decades, regained momentum when the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Crime Laboratory developed a DNA profile from Girmai's fingernails, the release said. That profile was matched with Garcia, a convict who had not previously been linked to Girmai.

In 2011, investigators from the D.A.'s office and Mountain View police began seriously looking into the case. Working with the Fresno County Probation Department, investigators called Garcia in for extensive interviews, which led to his arrest on Jan. 4.

Garcia is charged with murder and is currently being held without bail, the release said. He was scheduled to be arraigned today, Jan. 7, in Palo Alto.

Mountain View Police Chief Scott Vermeer said he hopes the efforts of investigators might help bring closure to Girmai's family.

"We never forget about unsolved murder cases and continuously seek out new technology and new leads to help us solve them," Vermeer said.

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