Murder Suspect Bound For Trial in California

A man suspected in the 1976 murder of UNR coed Michelle Mitchell has been bound over for trial in San Mateo County, CA, in two murders there in 1976. Sixty-eight-year-old Rodney Halbower will stand trial for the murders of 18-year-old Veronica Cascio and 17-year-old Paula Baxter. The San Mateo County District Attorney says Halbower is suspected in multiple murders in 1976, but DNA evidence only linked him to the two for which he’s going to be tried. Washoe County prosecutors convicted Cathy Woods of killing Michelle Mitchell in 1980, but DNA testing in 2013 exonerated Woods — and reportedly implicated Halbower.