Convict charged in 1981 slaying of Chicago woman

A convicted rapist serving an 80-year prison term has been linked by DNA evidence to the 1981 stabbing death of a Chicago woman and charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors announced Friday.

Eugene Booker, 59, appeared in Cook County court on charges he fatally stabbed Carol Novak, 35, and was ordered held without bond. It was not immediately known if he had retained an attorney. He previously was convicted of sexually assaulting women on the Chicago's North Side in the 1980s.

Novak's body was discovered Oct. 2, 1981, in her North Side home after an attack in which she was stabbed 50 times in the back, right side and right eye. Her dog also was found stabbed in the head.

Chicago police interviewed several people, and evidence technicians collected DNA evidence, but the case remained unsolved for more than 20 years.

Last year, Chicago police investigators reopened the case and - using money from a federal grant that allowed the retesting of semen found during the autopsy and blood found on Novak's clothing - sent the DNA evidence to a national law enforcement DNA index system. It matched the DNA profile of Booker, who was imprisoned at the Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg.

Booker has been in custody since he was arrested in early 1987. According to a news release, prosecutors alleged at the time that he would spot his intended victims on public transit, follow them to the buildings where they lived and attack them as they attempted to enter their apartments. He was arrested after police spotted a man matching the description given by one of the victims, and ultimately was convicted of six counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated battery.