In the nearly 30 years that Ernest J. Broadnax has lived in New York City, he has always been known for getting into trouble, with 14 arrests on charges like assault and burglary. He served three stints in state prison. But now, in an advanced age, he’s become known to neighbors as a cordial but distant man, who has struggled with alcohol and drug addiction.

But none of the crimes in New York that he was charged with were as severe as the gruesome killings he is now accused of having committed. This week, the police in Queens arrested Mr. Broadnax for the 1973 murders of two women who had been vacationing in Virginia, the police there said.

A cold-case squad in Virginia Beach identified Mr. Broadnax, who is in his 80s, as a suspect by using technology that did not even exist when the women, Lynn Seethaler and Janice Pietropola, both 19, were killed inside a motel cottage near the oceanfront.

DNA evidence found at the crime scene was used last fall to match Mr. Broadnax’s profile in a national database, a Virginia Beach law enforcement official said. The official did not say what type of DNA was collected from the scene, and requested anonymity to discuss the pending case because doing so is illegal under Virginia law.