On Wednesday, Minot Police Department announced an arrest had been made in the 15-year-old murder of college student Anita Knutson.

The announcement came as a surprise to most learning the news because the case had lingered unresolved for so long with no arrest being made.

But with the recent help of “Cold Justice” and new detectives at the Minot Police Department, Carman Asham and Mikali Talbott, taking on the investigation, along with Capt. Dale Plessas providing some recent coordination help, everything fell into place to obtain an arrest warrant, Police Chief John Klug said in his account of the events leading to the arrest.

Less than a year ago, Minot Police Department also closed the books on another 15-year-old cold case when it was determined Leigh Cowen murdered 3-year-old Reachelle Smith, who disappeared in May 2006.

It’s not unusual for a case to take years to solve, as it was for both the Anita Knutson and Reachelle Smith cases. Investigators can take a long time to piece together all the information and then make sure everything is correct before making an arrest.

Minot Police Chief John Klug said it best at the news conference on Wednesday about the work of the officers more recently assigned to the case:

“They read every statement. They looked at every piece of evidence. They looked at every report that was done, and they refined that information down. It’s just a lot of time-consuming work and dedication to the community and to Anita and her family.”

The police department wanted to solve both of the 15-year-old cases much earlier than now, but to their well-deserved credit, they did not give up and kept the cases active.

The arrest is not the end, though, but the beginning of what will be a heavily followed court case in which police will need to defend their investigation. The alleged offender also will have a defense to make, leaving this case potentially far from over.