The Suffolk DA’s office says a decades-old homicide may finally have been solved using DNA evidence.

Cornell Bell, 54, was charged on Tuesday with first-degree murder for allegedly stabbing a Dorchester woman to death in her home in 1999.

The victim, Caryn Bonner, was found dead in her Columbia Road apartment on May 19, 1999 by her sister, who went to check on Bonner after not hearing from her for several days. Bonner was 34 years old at the time of her death.

Bonner’s mother told the Herald after her death that her daughter was a person with a big heart. She described Bonner as “a happy girl,” with many friends, whose favorite thing to do was watch sports on TV.

Neighbors reported that Bonner was quiet but that she loved children and often ran errands for the elderly people in her building.

Bonner’s accused killer already has a first-degree murder conviction. Bell was convicted for murdering his girlfriend Michelle Clark in July 2022, and he’s currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

According to the DA’s office, investigators were able to connect Bell to the killing after his DNA was uploaded to the FBI’s database following his 2022 conviction. Bell’s DNA was then matched to a cigarette butt found in Bonner’s apartment at the time.

They were also able to match a photo of a bloody finger print from the Dorchester crime scene to Bell, the DA said in a statement.

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Bell is the second suspect in a long-unsolved murder case to see charges in the last few weeks because of DNA evidence. Last month, Brian Keazer was also charged with first-degree murder in connection to the 1997 killing of Ruth Foster in Mattapan. Keazer’s spit, collected by law enforcement from the sidewalk while surveilling him, matched DNA found in Foster’s apartment, the DA said.

“The combination of advanced forensic science and unrelenting investigative work has given the family and friends of Caryn Bonner, like those of Ruth Foster before them, the reality of seeing a charged defendant answer for a crime that has left years of loss and sorrow in its wake,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “We never consider a homicide case unsolvable, no matter how much time has elapsed.”