Man Found Guilty of 1984 St. Charles Killing

Thirty years after an 84-year-old St. Charles woman was killed in her home, a man has been convicted in the case.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that jurors on Thursday found 49-year-old Cecil McBenge guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Eleonora Knoernschild.

Knoernschild was in ill health and lived alone. Her daughter found her on the floor of her bedroom on Nov. 4, 1984. Her home had been ransacked and she had been beaten and strangled with her bedspread. Authorities say theft was the motive.

McBenge's brother, 52-year-old Brian McBenge, was found guilty of Knoernschild's murder in August. He faces sentencing Thursday.

The case had gone cold until DNA evidence in 2011 linked the brothers to the crime.