Phoenix police arrested a man on Thursday on suspicion of murder in a cold case that has spanned nearly four decades, according to police officials.

Fernando Calleros and a woman were found in the bed of a pickup truck on June 10, 1978, in the area of 32nd Street and Broadway Road, according to a Phoenix police statement.

Calleros, who was 23 years old at the time, was beaten to death while the woman was beaten and sexually assaulted. She survived the attack, police said.

Police initially arrested Glenn Williams in January 1979, and he was charged in connection with the crime. But police said the charges were eventually "turned down" due to lack of evidence, and all of the technology available at that time had been exhausted.

Williams, who was 21 at the time, was released from jail, police said.

However, last year, the Phoenix Police Cold Case Homicide Squad reexamined the case, and thanks to advances in technology, they were able to link Williams to the crime, according to the statement.

Williams, now 62, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of first-degree murder and sexual assault, police said. He was booked into a Maricopa County jail and is being held on $1 million bond, according to online records.

Williams is scheduled to return to court April 16.

"We are constantly looking for ways to use current technologies and new approaches to being able to combine best science and best evidence, so that we can provide some answers to our investigators that will help further the investigation to a successful resolution," Jody Wolf, Phoenix Crime Lab administrator, said in the statement.

"42 years ago, those detectives did a great job obtaining, and packaging, and maintaining the evidence," Wolf added. "The scientists were able to use the evidence, test it with today's technology, and it identified Williams as the suspect in this brutal attack."

Reach the reporter Christopher Roth at Christopher.Roth@gannett.com or on Twitter @cprothnews.