Edmund Schreiber was killed in 1983 during a home invasion robbery, authorities said.
A New York librarian has admitted to killing a decorated World War I veteran during a home invasion robbery that took place nearly 35 years ago, authorities said.
Saundra Adams, 51, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter on Wednesday, one day into her trial for the murder of 92-year-old Edmund Schreiber in Buffalo.
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She was 17 when she and an accomplice broke into Schreiber's house looking for money and strangled the Purple Heart recipient with his own neckties, prosecutor John Flynn said.
At the time, Adams lived on the same street and often ran errands for the elderly widower, Flynn said.
The 1983 case was unsolved until last year, when it was reopened at the request of the Buffalo Police Department’s cold case unit. Genetic testing showed evidence found on the ties linked Adams to the killing, Flynn said.
Adams’ alleged partner in crime has since died, the prosecutor said.
Schreiber served in an infantry division and was wounded in both legs by machine gun fire during a 1918 battle in France.
He received a Purple Heart for those injuries.
Read: Mother Convicted of Killing Her 5-Year-Old Son in 1991 Cold Case Gets 30 Years in Prison
His granddaughters will attend a sentencing hearing for Adams scheduled for Nov. 6, Flynn said. “They were very relieved,” he told reporters on Thursday. “They really just wanted to know what happened.”
Adams faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.
She has two children and was working in the library of Bryant and Stratton College’s Buffalo campus when she was arrested.
She had also been taking classes there.
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