BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The cases of a woman stabbed in Idaho and another strangled in Washington in the 1990s didn’t seem related until law enforcement officials realized through DNA evidence that they likely had the same killer.

Samples sent to a national DNA database provided no suspects, however.

Then last year agencies compared notes and discovered that a name on a slip of paper found in the Washington woman’s purse was the same as a name on a list kept by Idaho detectives.

DNA from a cigarette discarded by Lee Miller connected him to the crimes, and on Wednesday the 54-year-old Boise, Idaho, man was sentenced to life in prison.

“He wasn’t a suspect in either one of our cases at the time,” said Detective Martin Garland with the Bremerton Police Department. “But because he was the only person that was in both of our case files, we identified him as likely the person that was responsible.”

Miller was sentenced by both states on Wednesday in Idaho with Kitsap County Judge Jeanette Dalton participating via video conference.

Miller earlier this year pleaded guilty in each case to second-degree murder for the 1994 stabbing death of 49-year-old Cheryle Barrett in Boise and the 1992 strangulation death of 57-year-old Marilyn Hickey in Bremerton, near Seattle.