On June 3rd 2000 in San Francisco, California, a previously convicted child molester was arrested after investigators matched his DNA with a semen sample found on a victim's shirt and sock. In 1977, a young girl was kidnapped and killed in Reno, Nevada. The day after she was kidnapped, her clothing, stained with semen, was found in a garbage can. At the time, the findings had little value for forensic investigators, who could only use DNA technology to eliminate possible suspects. The technology at the time could not identify the perpetrator. However, as the years progressed, advances in DNA and computer technology were made. So in 1993, the police of the area took the semen sample and began checking them against a list of possible suspects, then against known sex offenders in Nevada, Northern California, and the Pacific Northwest. But, no progress was made until the last week in May, when a direct match was made, linking Stephen Robert Smith to the little girls' disappearance. Smith had cooperated with his parole officer by giving a DNA sample to the database. If Smith were convicted, the case would be the oldest murder solved by Reno police using DNA evidence.