Shasta County detectives have arrested a man in Tucson, Arizona, in the 40-year-old killing of 18-year-old Terrance “Terry” Arndt and the rape of an 18-year-old woman near Burney in 1984.
Arndt and the woman were talking in his car on Mountain View Road near Burney High School late on Dec. 14, 1984, when an unknown man approached. Investigators say Arndt shielded the woman as the gunman opened fire, then sexually assaulted her several times before fleeing. The woman drove for help, but Arndt died at a hospital.
Shasta County deputies spent thousands of hours on the case without finding a suspect. Last year, detectives used forensic genetic genealogy through Othram, a Texas-based lab, and secured grant funding from the Roads to Justice program to re-examine DNA evidence. The new testing pointed to Roger Neil Schmidt Sr., who was 23 and living in Burney at the time of the crime and resembled the original composite sketch.
Detectives and a Shasta County senior deputy district attorney traveled to Tucson on July 16. With help from the Tucson Police Department, they obtained Schmidt’s DNA under a search warrant. Lab results the next night matched crime-scene evidence, leading a Shasta County judge to issue an arrest warrant July 18.
Tucson officers arrested Schmidt on July 19. He was booked into the Pima County Jail on suspicion of murder and rape and is awaiting extradition to Shasta County.
The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office thanked the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office, Tucson Police Department, Othram Forensic Genealogy and the California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services for their roles in the arrest.
