This week, a former New York prison officer was detained in connection with the ex-wife’s murder in March 1997.

Rafael Ramos, 54, has been a primary suspect in the death of his ex-wife Nusinaida Ramos since the early 2000s, just a few years after police discovered her bloodied body in the living room of her Yonkers, New York, home, just a few miles north of the Bronx.

At a press conference on Thursday, Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah claimed that he allegedly battered Ramos and choked her with a T-shirt.

On Wednesday, the former Sing Sing corrections officer was arrested and charged. He was arraigned and entered a not guilty plea to second-degree murder; he is currently being held at Westchester County Jail.

Eva Beauchamps, Nusinaida’s sister-in-law, told The Journal News that Rafael was “extremely angry” at the time because Nusinaida wanted to raise child support and was thinking about leaving to Florida, though Rocah didn’t provide a motive for the suspected murder.

“I thought I was going to the grave with nothing ever happening in this case,” Beauchamps told the local newspaper after Wednesday’s arraignment. “It’s been a long time coming … She was so vibrant, so beautiful. You could be having the worst day ever, and she made you laugh ’til your cheeks hurt.”

Pamela Graddick was killed in 2012, and on Thursday, Rocah announced the indictment and sentencing of the killer. She expressed her hope that these events would offer “some measure of closure to the families who have lived with these unsolved cases for a combined 36 years.”

Yonkers Police Cold Case detectives worked on both investigations, and Yonkers Police Commissioner Christopher Sapienza praised their efforts.

“Words cannot assuage the grief of losing a loved one to violence, so we hope these efforts bring some degree of closure to those who knew Pamela and Nusinaida,” Sapienza said in a statement.