DNA evidence has finally identified a serial killer and rapist from the 1990s - but found he killed himself 20 years ago.

Genevieve Zitricki, 28, was found beaten and strangled to death in her bathtub in her Greenville apartment, South Carolina, in April 1990.

Her death went unsolved unsolved for many years until police announced in 2006 that they had found a crucial piece of evidence; they found that DNA at the scene matched that left behind during the murder of a mother and her 12-year-old daughter in Missouri.

Police have found that Robert Brashers of Paragould, Arkansas (left) murdered Genevieve "Jenny" Zitricki in 1990 - almost 30 years on

Sherri and 12-year-old Megan Sherer were shot dead with a .22 caliber gun in their farmhouse near Portageville in March 1998. Police also found that Megan had been raped by her killer.

Now new testing of the old DNA evidence has identified their killer as Robert Brashers of Paragould, Arkansas.

Brashers, who has a criminal record which included beating and shooting a woman in Florida in the 1980s, killed himself in 1999 as Kennett, Missouri, during a police stand off when they sought to question him in a stolen license plate investigation.

Zitricki, 28, was found beaten and strangled to death in her bathtub in her Greenville apartment (pictured) South Carolina, in April 1990

He was never a suspect at the time of Zitricki's death.

Investigators were finally able to break the cold case after the local Greenville police handed over evidence from the 1990 case to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for DNA testing. The DNA was entered into the FBI's Codus system which flagged that it matched the Missouri murders.

They also found it matched the case of a 14-year-old girl who was raped in Tennessee in 1997.

In August 2017, the lab returned their results, which identified Brasher as a likely suspect.

Investigators tracked down his family who consented to a DNA swab for testing. Those tests conformed that the suspect in those cases were directly related to

That testing confirmed the perpetrator in the unsolved cases was directly related to the family members who were swabbed.

Police released sketches of the suspected killer but were not able to track him down until the DNA evidence was submitted to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for DNA testing

Now new testing of the old DNA evidence has identified their killer as Robert Brashers of Paragould, Arkansas

When they looked like a match, they exhumed his body last month and have confirmed his DNA was a match

Brasher's body was exhumed on September 27, and investigators confirmed his DNA matched that left at the murder scenes.

It remains unclear why Brashers targeted Zitricki as they didn't seem to know each other or live close to one another but police said she was an outgoing character who lived near the community pool and would allow pool visitors to use her pool.

Police think that her bubbly personality may have attracted the attention of the killer.

'We think that since Jenny was so outgoing, her, her apartment was right there by the pool, it wasn't uncommon to have pool parties and Jenny's, uh, apartment was used to use the restroom and uh, people going in-and-out,' Sgt. Tim Conroy with Greenville police stated. 'I believe that she was targeted that way since she was so outgoing.

'He knew who was in that apartment when he entered, so no, I believe she was targeted.'