A 57-year-old man has been arrested 35 years after the murder of a young mother in Florida.

Cold case investigators detained Daniel Wells this week in connection with the killing of 23-year-old Tonya McKinley in Pensacola

Mr Wells was arrested after DNA was found on a cigarette that matched DNA a sample obtained from the crime scene, according to an arrest warrant seen by The Pensacola News Journal.

McKinley was found in the early morning of New Years Day 1985, strangled and sexually assaulted.

Police said McKinley’s body was discovered “discarded on the side of a road.”

Her 18-month-old baby was left without a mother as a result of the murder.

Police had made no arrests in relation to the crime Mr Wells was detained on Wednesday.

“Despite having a good bit of physical evidence and dozens of interviews, over time, the trail went cold. It seems that every couple of years a new lead would pop up and we would drop everything to run it down,” Pensacola police said in a statement.

“We did this time and time again. In the meantime, a baby boy grew up without a mother, parents buried their daughter without knowing justice, and a killer was walking around free” they said.

New advancements in technology allowed the police to compare DNA from a cigarette the police surreptitiously acquired from Mr Wells, according to reports.

The DNA matched a sample from the crime scene and the police made the arrest.

Mr Wells is facing charges of first-degree murder and first-degree sexual battery, The Pensacola News Journal reported. McKinley’s son, Timothy Davidson Jr, who was 18-months-old at the time of his mother’s murder, spoke to the newspaper about the sadness of growing up without her.

“My mom, she never got to raise me, never got to be a part of my life,” Mr Davidson said

“I didn’t really know if this [arrest] would ever happen,” McKinley’s sister, Renee McCall, 62, told NBC News.