(CNN) Police have cracked a cold case with DNA found on the razor of the man they say raped and killed two women more than four decades ago in California.

DNA from a razor used by Arthur Rudy Martinez matches that left by the attacker at both crime scenes in the late 1970s, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office said.

Martinez died of cancer in June 2014 at a prison in Spokane Washington, where he was serving life for robberies and two other unrelated rapes.

The two victims did not know each other

The cases of Jane Morton Antunez and Patricia Dwyer date to 1977 and 1978, respectively.

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