A man who died in a Texas prison decades ago has been identified as the person who abducted and stabbed three Indiana girls and left them in a cornfield nearly 50 years ago, police said, citing DNA evidence.

The girls, ages 11, 13 and 14, survived the attack, but “a clear suspect” was never pinpointed and the case went cold — until now. Investigators using “forensic genetic genealogy” have identified the attacker as Thomas Edward Williams, who died at 49 in November 1983 in a Galveston, Texas, prison, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday.