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SALT LAKE CITY — A Florida man charged last week with the cold case rape and murder of a 16-year-old Salt Lake girl in 1977 was extradited to Utah on Sunday.
Patrick Michael McCabe, 59, was booked into Salt lake County Jail on Sunday, 40 years after police say he raped and murdered 16-year-old Sharon Schollmeyer.
McCabe was charged Friday with the equivalent of aggravated murder, which is a first-degree felony and capital offense, as well as aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary, both first-degree felonies.
According to police, McCabe used keys he had been provided through his job as an apartment manager to sneak in to Schollmeyer's apartment at 125 E. First Ave on Dec. 5, 1977.
McCabe later unlocked the door to let Schollmeyer's mother into her apartment to check on her daughter when she learned she hadn't reported for work, charges state.
Police identified McCabe last year through DNA evidence from the scene. Court documents allege McCabe — who was living in Bell, Florida — admitted to authorities there that he used his apartment manager key to get into Schollmeyer's apartment late at night.
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Sally Kadleck believed she would go to the grave without knowing the name of her daughter's killer.He picked up a knife from inside the apartment and went into the teen's bedroom, where he found her asleep, the charges state, then used the knife to threaten the girl while he bound her, raped her and then took her to the tub and strangled her.
An autopsy performed on the girl concluded she died from "strangulation and suffocation."
McCabe's official homicide charge in 3rd District Court is "murder in the first degree," which was the statutory definition that applied to the alleged killing under Utah law in 1977. An initial court date has yet to be scheduled.
