Nearly 40-years after the high-profile murders of two Toronto women, police have arrested and charged a man in the 1983 cases of Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour.

(Susan Tice, left, Erin Gilmour)

Toronto Police Detective Sgt Steve Smith says they were able to arrest 61-year-old Joseph Sutherland of Moosonee with the help of a process that uses DNA technology to connect suspects with genetic material left at the scene.

“We’re able to use investigative genetic genealogy to narrow down a suspect family and from there we’re able to narrow down a suspect, who is obviously, under arrest today,” adds Smith

Sutherland’s scheduled to appear in court December 9th.

45-year-old Susan Tice, a mother of four, was found in her Grace and Harbord Streets home in August 1983.

Four months later, and just days before Christmas, 22-year-old Erin Gilmour, an aspiring fashion designer, was killed in her Yorkville apartment.

The same genetic technology used in these cases was used in 202 to help police identify Calvin Hoover as the killer of young Christine Jessop in 1984.