BOULDER, Colo. -- DNA on a baseball bat used to kill a University of Colorado student in 1997 has been linked to the slaying suspect's girlfriend, according to a published report.

DNA collected from the body of Susannah Chase already linked Diego Olmos Alcalde to her, but the new DNA evidence shows Alcalde had access to the weapon, the Daily Camera reported Thursday.

Chase, 23, was beaten and raped as she walked back to her home on Spruce Street in the early morning hours of Dec. 21, 1997. She was attacked not far from her home, but there were no witnesses.

Alcalde's former girlfriend consented to provide DNA to investigators, the newspaper reported.

The case remained one of Boulder's most notorious unsolved slayings until Alcalde was identified as a suspect after his DNA was entered into a federal database while he was in a Wyoming prison on a kidnapping conviction in 2007.

The former girlfriend, identified in court documents as Sonci Frances, has been ruled out as a suspect in the Chase killing because she was not in Colorado at the time of the slaying.

Read more about the story at the DailyCamera.com.