Larry Joe Scott (above), 65, was arrested Monday in Florida and charged with murder and kidnapping in the death of 33-year-old Bonnie Neighbors

A Florida man has been arrested in one of North Carolina's coldest cases: the 1972 slaying of a woman found bound and shot beside her four-month-old baby.

Larry Joe Scott, 65, was arrested Monday in Bradenton and charged with murder and kidnapping in the death of 33-year-old Bonnie Neighbors.

Neighbors was kidnapped with her baby boy while on her way to pick up her seven-year-old son from school, The News & Observer reported.

Her body, and the living infant, were later found in a migrant worker house near Benson.

Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell, who reopened the case in 2007, says the investigation picked up after nearly 47 years when newer DNA technology pointed to Scott.

Bizzell said it was the oldest cold case in Johnson County.

State Attorney General Josh Stein says confirmatory testing is in process.

On December 14, 1972, Neighbors was kidnapped with her baby boy while on her way to pick up her seven-year-old son from school

Her body was found bound with multiple gunshot wounds while her four-month-old son, Glen (right), lay a few feet away from her. He was unharmed. Glen Neighbors (left) works today as a paramedic in Four Oaks, North Carolina, according to his LinkedIn profile

The sheriff said Scott was being held in Bradenton before his expected extradition to North Carolina to face charges of murder and kidnapping.

At a news conference announcing the arrest on Tuesday, Bizzell grew emotional as he recalled breaking the news to the Neighbors family that a suspect was in custody.

'I was finally able to tell her son that we had found his mother’s murderer,' Bizzell said.

'Justice had been far-too-long delayed for her. For all those years we had looked to find who had done it.'

Bizzell said that Scott lived in Benson, a small town in Johnston County, in 1972, the year in which Bonnie Neighbors was slain.

Investigators say they have yet to pinpoint a motive for the crime, as it appears that Scott did not know Neighbors or her family.

Ken Neighbors (above), Bonnie's husband, has waited four decades for justice

Bizzell said that investigators achieved a breakthrough two weeks ago when they contacted their counterparts in Florida.

He said that DNA evidence collected in the case was retested using sophisticated technology.

The new test led to a match, which resulted in Scott's arrest, according to Bizzell.

'In 1972, I was only 14 years old, but something about Bonnie Neighbors’ killing and about this case always bothered me,' Bizzell said.

'After I became sheriff in 2007, I was still haunted because her killer had not been found.'

Glen Neighbors, 47, works today as a paramedic in Four Oaks, North Carolina, according to his LinkedIn profile