ARREST MADE IN BEAUTY'S MURDER OFFICIALS SAY DNA IDENTIFIES SUSPECT.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

ROSAMOND - DNA technology helped Kern County sheriff's detectives identify a suspect in a murder that had gone unsolved for 24 years: the 1978 sexual assault and strangulation of a former Miss Rosamond in her apartment.

Former neighbor Larry Kusuth Hazlett, now 55, who had moved to Sacramento after the murder, was arrested there Wednesday on charges that he murdered 20-year-old Antelope Valley College student Tana Woolley in October 1978.

``She was very well liked and just an outstanding young lady,'' Kern County Sheriff's Cmdr. Marty Williamson said of Woolley. ``She was someone you could be proud to associate with.''

Hazlett, 31 years old in 1978, had been the prime suspect immediately after the killing, officials said. But investigators said they lacked evidence to arrest him.

The brutal slaying had shocked the small town and left residents wondering who the killer was.

Olaf Landsgaard, a Rosamond attorney and school board member who graduated from high school four months before Tana Woolley was murdered, said of Hazlett's arrest, ``I always wondered who it was.''

After working on the case for six years, investigators relegated it to inactive status - still unsolved, but not being investigated actively.

Then in March 1999, when Detective Chris Speer had some free time from current investigations, he reopened the file - partly in response to the Woolley family's regular telephone calls inquiring if any news had turned up.

Woolley's parents still live in Rosamond. They declined to talk to the news media, sheriff's officials said.

After reading the old files, the detective contacted Hazlett in Sacramento, where Hazlett was living with his wife, and persuaded him to submit blood and hair samples.

Those samples were sent to the Kern County district attorney's crime lab for comparison. On Dec. 5, crime lab officials reported that the DNA evidence from the crime scene matched the DNA profile of Hazlett, detectives said.

Kern County detectives obtained a warrant and went to Sacramento. They arrested Hazlett at his home and transported him back to Kern County.

``With a fresh set of eyes, Detective Speer was able to pick things up that the initial detectives didn't pick up for some reason or another,'' Williamson said. ``He saw things that were red flags and followed up on it, and it turned out to be fruitful.''

Woolley was found dead Oct. 25, 1978, in her apartment in the 2100 block of Poplar Street in Rosamond. Neighbors reported hearing a scream the night before, officials said. Coroner's reports indicated she was strangled and sexually assaulted.

Hazlett apparently has been living in Sacramento for 20 years, Williamson said. Officials said Hazlett had several run-ins with law enforcement during those years but would not elaborate.

Woolley graduated from Rosamond High School in 1976, the year she was crowned Miss Rosamond. She had been working as a secretary for National Aeronautics and Space Administration while attending Antelope Valley College when she was killed.

At Rosamond High School and Antelope Valley College, she was very active in school service groups, sports and politics. She was also an officer in the Rainbow Girls Edwards Assembly, in which she helped mentor younger girls.

The Kern County Sheriff's Department is trying to establish a cold-case files unit that will regularly assign detectives to reopen inactive investigations and employ new technology, Williamson said.