BILOXI, Miss — A Biloxi man has been arrested in connection with a decades-old cold case in Southeast Louisiana referred to as "the man in the well," according to reports from a Mississippi TV Station.
KALB reports that U.S. Marshals arrested 74-year-old Delwin Sibley at his home in Biloxi on a second-degree murder warrant related to the death of Lester Rome in 1984.
Rome went missing from Grand Isle that year, but authorities had no clues about his location for decades.
But two years later, a landowner in Sabine Parish found human remains in a well on his property. The story of what happened to that victim has been infamous among the parish's law enforcement for decades as the "man in the well" case.
In 2013, LSU researchers were able to identify shotgun pellets in the remains pulled up as similar to ones Rome suffered years before he went missing.
But the bones weren't confirmed to be his until earlier this year, when the current owner of the well allowed firefighters to descend into the cramped underground space to recover more of the remains.
The firefighters also recovered items that allowed them to link the bones to Rome, but investigators declined to share what they were because they believed the items could lead to an imminent arrest.
KALB reports that Sibley became a suspect in Rome's murder in the past year, and authorities were able to get a warrant for his arrest after the bones were confirmed to belong to Rome.
It's unclear why Sibley is suspected of killing Rome or how the Grand Isle man's body wound up at the bottom of a well hours away in Sabine Parish.
Sibley will reportedly be brought back to Louisiana for prosecution.
RELATED: 'Man in the Well' | Bones found 35 years ago in Sabine Parish well were missing Grand Isle man
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