UT - Lucille Johnson, 78, murdered in her SLC home, 1 Feb 1991

Fingerprints found on Lego building blocks helped police crack a 23-year-old cold case murder mystery in Utah, authorities said.

The gruesome murder of 78-year-old Lucille Johnson in Salt Lake City left police puzzled in 1991.

The grandmother was strangled and beaten in her home and police found Legos in the entryway of her living room and driveway the floor, but were unable to discern who killed her, the Salt Lake Sheriff's Office said.

When the case was reopened last year, investigators tested the residue found under Johnson's fingernails for DNA and found that it matched that of 47-year-old John Sansing, a convicted murderer serving a prison sentence in Arizona for an unrelated case, Lt. Justin Hoyal of the Sheriff's Office said today.

They also tested the fingerprints on the Legos found at the scene and found that the prints matched that of Sansing's son.

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Sansing was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with aggravated murder. Prosecutors also filed a warrant to bring John Sansing back to Utah, setting his bail at $5 million cash.

"Often times in law enforcement we deal with individuals who can be characterized as not necessarily bad people, but people who do bad things. Occasionally, we run into individuals who are evil," Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder said at a Thursday press conference. Sansing can "only be described as that. This is an individual whose perpetrated crimes are beyond belief"...

As far as investigators can tell, Sansing and Johnson were strangers. Investigators suspect that Sansing left his 5-year-old son to play with his Legos on Johnson’s living room floor while he killed her.

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