Suspected killer eluded cops for 20 years until he applied for a job

Sondra Better’s killer left a trail of clues — blood, fingerprints and DNA — and eluded detectives for two decades.

“Our detectives worked years trying to find the killer in this case,” Acting Delray Beach Police Chief Javaro Sims said Wednesday. “We had fingerprints, we had blood, we even had a possible description from a witness. But the person responsible for this heinous case seemed to just disappear.”

But two months ago, Delray Beach police got a huge break in the cold case that had frustrated two generations of detectives.

Todd Barket, 51, of Brandon made the mistake of applying for a job with a fire and water cleanup company that required him to undergo a background check and submit his fingerprints, police said.

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