SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Authorities say DNA has helped them determine the man who killed a neighbor in South Carolina 32 years ago is now dead himself.
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Spartanburg Sheriff Chuck Wright says 44-year-old James Larry Smith was attacked and beaten with a hammer in his home in December 1987 and remained in a coma until he died four months later.
The sheriff told the newspaper he will release more details at a news conference in a few days.
Wright told the Herald-Journal of Spartanburg that DNA from the crime scene was recently linked to Smith's neighbor, Roger Switzer. The sheriff says Switzer died of a heart attack in 2008.
Wright says Switzer's death means investigators may never know why he allegedly beat Smith with a hammer.