For 33 years, police in Columbia, Mo., have searched for Rebecca Doisy's killer.

Doisy, a Kirkwood High School graduate, disappeared in Columbia in 1976. The trail of evidence eventually led police to Johnny Wright, who had pestered Doisy at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress.

But by the time Wright was charged with the murder years later, he could not be found. Neither was Doisy's body, despite extraordinary efforts that included exhuming a "Jane Doe" in Jefferson County, consulting a psychic and letting a "cold case" class of forensic science college students investigate the crime.

"There were a lot of dead ends," said Chris Egbert, the Columbia police detective who pursued leads until he retired in 1993.

That all changed Monday, when Columbia police received a call from officers in Lawrenceville, Ga. They had nabbed Wright, 65, after he went to the police department and filled out paperwork for a routine background check needed as part of a job application.

"When they ran the check, they got a hit on him," Lawrenceville police Capt. Greg Vaughn told The Associated Press. "He paid $15 to get arrested."

Columbia police immediately notified Kathy Doisy, a retired research biologist at the University of Missouri and Rebecca Doisy's sister. With Wright's arrest, the family hopes to finally learn what happened.

"We're just really glad that he's been arrested and we hope that maybe they'll be able to prove their case and this will be resolved," Kathy Doisy said. "It would just be nice to know where she is."

The Doisy name is well-known in St. Louis medical circles. Rebecca Doisy's grandfather was Nobel prize-winning biochemist Dr. Edward A. Doisy Sr., who founded the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at St. Louis University in 1923. The university's biomedical research building is named after him.

Rebecca Doisy was the daughter of Dr. Robert A. and the late Harriett A. Doisy of Glendale. Rebecca's mother died in 1985.

Dr. Robert Doisy's brother, Dr. Philip Doisy, said Tuesday he was glad to hear of Wright's arrest.

"I feel justice may be served yet," he said.

Rebecca Doisy was 23 at the time of her disappearance. She had dropped out of the University of Missouri and was working as a waitress at Ernie's Steakhouse in Columbia.

Her sister recalled that Rebecca had an "eclectic group of friends," including an elderly blind man, a former convict, whom she read to regularly.

"She wasn't afraid of anybody or anything, which may be the reason she's not here anymore," Kathy Doisy said. Before Rebecca dropped out, "she was getting a degree in education and had talked of maybe helping special-needs kids."

She was last seen alive on Aug. 5, 1976. That day, she was seen leaving her apartment with Wright. The two were seen in a bar together later that evening.

Wright had been asking Rebecca Doisy for dates, repeatedly calling her at work because she wouldn't give him her home number, Kathy Doisy said. Rebecca Doisy decided to have a drink with Wright and "politely get rid of him."

Wright had a lengthy arrest record for assaults and narcotics-related offenses. In 1972, he was convicted of burglary in Montgomery County and sentenced to four years.

After Doisy's disappearance, Wright failed to show up at his job with the Columbia Public Works Department and could not be found for several days. When he did surface, police said he failed a polygraph examination. But police said they lacked the evidence to charge Wright.

Then in 1985, an informer came forward with new information. The informer told police that he had seen Doisy's body, covered by a blanket, in the back seat of Wright's car on the night she disappeared. Egbert told the Post-Dispatch in 1986 that he believed Doisy had been strangled.

Charges of second-degree murder were brought against Wright in November 1985. But a nationwide search for Wright was unsuccessful. "It's like he disappeared off the face of the earth," Egbert said in 1986.

This week, Egbert was attending a Vietnam veterans reunion in Michigan when police called to tell him Wright had been caught.

"After all these years, to have him appear was surprising," Egbert said in a telephone interview. He called the case "one of the things I felt worst about when I retired, that I never brought that case to justice."

Police never gave up, said Columbia police Officer Jessie Haden. A few years ago, police Capt. Stephen Monticelli reviewed the file, looking for high-tech ways to revive it.

Now, the department is combing through Egbert's thick file and preparing to search for the informant and other key witnesses whose testimony would be needed to bring Wright to trial.

"It presents obstacles, there's no question," Haden said.

The Gwinnett County magistrate's court said Wright had waived extradition and was being held in the county jail awaiting his return to Missouri.

A police official in Lawrenceville, a town of about 30,000 about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, said he was uncertain what Wright had been doing in the years since he disappeared from Missouri.

The Georgia identification card that Wright presented for his background check had been issued less than a week before his arrest. The identification listed a Lawrenceville address.

Among those who had tried to track Wright down were students at Columbia College. A forensic science class taught by retired Columbia police detective Mike Himmel had focused on the case. The students had scoured leads for Doisy's body.

"There were hundreds of theories, what might have happened to her," said Egbert, who spoke to the class.

Kathy Doisy has a theory, based on Wright's work with the public works department.

"I always thought they would tear down a building built in 1976 and find her body," she said.

The last time Kathy saw her sister was on Kathy's 21st birthday, a few days before Rebecca's disappearance.

Kathy Doisy said Rebecca "spent her last $20 on my favorite dinner, then took me out for a bottle of champagne. It was a really sweet thing. The last thing we said to each other was 'I love you' and we hugged each other. I was very lucky to have such a nice goodbye."



The Associated Press and Phil O'Connor of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.