(CNN) The person who stabbed and bludgeoned Sondra Better to death 20 years ago seemed to vanish without a trace.

Better was working alone at Lu Shay's Consignment Shop in Delray Beach, Florida, on Aug. 24, 1998, when a man came into the store and killed her.

Although a witness saw him and the killer left behind a trail of his own blood and fingerprints, police weren't able to catch a suspect -- until he applied for a job last December.

"We had the physical evidence ... but the person responsible for this heinous case seemed to just disappear," Delray Beach Police Chief Javaro Sims said at a Wednesday press conference.

Sondra Better, seen here with her husband, was killed on August 24, 1998.

Police entered the fingerprints, which were lifted off a decorative ball from the crime scene, into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) database.

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