Evelyn Marie Fisher-Bamforth was relaxing in her Miramar, Florida home after work on January 22, 1980 when an intruder broke in, sexually assaulted and killed her.
Evelyn Marie Fisher-Bamforth was relaxing in her Miramar, Florida home after work on January 22, 1980 when an intruder broke in, sexually assaulted and killed her.
For more than four decades, the murder had gone unsolved. Authorities later suspected that a neighbor had killed Fisher-Bamforth , who lived with her husband and worked as a licensed psychiatric nurse.
It’s the oldest cold case solved in #MiramarPD history: Evelyn Marie Fisher-Bamforth was killed Jan. 22, 1980. Nearly 43 years later, we are pleased to announce a grand jury has indicted Ronald E. Richards for sexual battery & murder. We are one step closer to justice for Evelyn. pic.twitter.com/zFbQQljoBQ
— Miramar Police (@MiramarPD) December 1, 2022
At the time, authorities said they had no concrete evidence to link the suspect to the crime.
But now, due to advances in DNA technology , authorities have made an arrest and ultimately charged the neighbor with sexual assault and murder.
“Due to advances in DNA technology and the diligence and hard work of Detective Johnathan Zeller, Ronald Eugène Richards has been charged with sexual assault and murder,” Tania Rues, spokeswoman for the Miramar Police Department, told WSVN- tv . “We are one step closer to getting justice for Evelyn.”
Richards, now 75, is in prison in Ohio after being convicted of an unrelated rape and attempted murder in the Fisher-Bamforth case.
He has not yet entered a guilty plea and it is unclear if he has an attorney authorized to speak on his behalf.
He will be extradited to Broward County, Florida, to formally face the new charges.
According to authorities, Richards lived 12 houses away from Fisher-Bamforth at the time of the murder. They didn’t seem to know each other before his death.
The arrest is a welcome development for Evelyn’s husband, John Bamforth, who has spent nearly 43 years mourning the death of his wife.
Bamforth told WSVN that he came home from work the night of his wife’s murder to find police tape on his front door.
“And that’s when I saw what I saw: scrambled furniture, scrambled cushions, and then I came back into the room, at least half the bed was drenched in blood,” Bamforth told the station.
John Bamforth says he never got over his wife’s death . “You never have closure, as you can see,” he told the station. “But certainly justice for Evelyn is the most important thing.”