DNA ties Illinois man to Wisconsin runaway found dead in 1997

James P. Eaton (AP Photo/Racine County Sheriff)

Authorities tailed a man for several days and used DNA from a cigarette he tossed away at a train station to connect him to the cold-case slaying of a teenage runaway whose body was found in a marsh in 1997, a sheriff in southeastern Wisconsin said Tuesday.

James Eaton, 36, of Palatine, Ill., was arrested Saturday in Chicago, Racine County Sheriff Chris Schmaling said. Eaton has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse. He was being held at the Racine County Jail on Tuesday on $1 million bail.

"This is a day that we have been waiting more than 17 years to arrive," Schmaling said at a news conference.

Eaton is suspected in connection with the slaying of Amber Creek, a 14-year-old from Palatine, Ill.

Amber Gail Creek on her 13th birthday. (AP Photo/Racine County Sheriff via the Racine Journal Times)

Two weeks later, a pair of hunters found Creek's corpse in a marsh in the Town of Burlington. She'd been beaten, sexually assaulted and suffocated with a plastic bag. She had a human bite mark on her neck, and her body was posed with an upraised hand that had the word "Hi" written on her palm.

Investigators referred to her as Jane Doe for 16 months until they could determine her name.

Schmaling said there was no indication that Eaton, who would have been 19 at the time of her disappearance, knew Creek. "Eaton had not previously been a suspect or mentioned during the course of this investigation," he said.

Investigators recovered DNA from Creek's body and fingerprints from the bag used to suffocate her. The evidence was sent to the FBI and crime labs in other states, but no matches turned up.

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DNA ties Illinois man to Wisconsin runaway found dead in 1997