Thursday, May 21, 1998 | 2 a.m.
Authorities had no suspects or clues into the stabbing death of Rulan McGill until last year.
That's when Terry Childs, who was serving a 41-year sentence in California for the 1987 killing of a Scotts Valley teen-ager, began to talk.
He told authorities he was responsible for a dozen murders across the West during a killing spree in the late 1970s.
Using the confession as a lead, Nevada authorities found evidence linking Childs to McGill's murder in Sparks.
He was indicted for murder by a Washoe County grand jury in November.
McGill, 32, drove to Reno on July 10, 1979, for a dental appointment and to shop. She was reported missing the next day when she failed to return home.
Two days after she left home, her vehicle was found behind a warehouse. The following morning, the victim's stepfather and an uncle discovered her body in a nearby ditch.
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