The final chapter is closed in an Anchorage murder that for a long time went unsolved. In court Friday Roger McKinley was sentenced to 129 years in prison for the 2002 murder and sexual assault of Cynthia Henry.

In June, McKinley was convicted of stabbing Henry to death underneath the downtown A street bridge and assaulting her with a vodka bottle. The investigation had been a cold case for years until a tip led police to finding McKinley.

On the night of September 23, 2002, Henry was sexually assaulted and brutally murdered in Downtown Anchorage.

For Detective Glen Klinkhart who worked the case until its conclusion, Henry's case is one he will never forget. For years the killing of Henry had stumped detectives as the clues and list of potential suspects in the downtown area remained long.

"It was way too much, we could just not simply paw print every male in Anchorage or Alaska, it wasn't going to happen. We really needed to bring in some resources," said Klinkhart.

That resource was the public.

"The best resource is really having people come forward and say hey I know this, or I heard this." Klinkhart continued, "Then instead of doing a shotgun approach we can laser target. We can eliminate people

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or focus our attention on somebody."

Desperate for help, Detective Klinkart held a press conference under the same bridge Cynthia was killed, and made a plea for anyone to come forward with information.

"By making that plea by asking citizens hey we need your help, there were several people who had new information, and one particular person came forward," said Klinkhart.

The next day there was a breakthrough as an anonymous person gave info, which helped detectives break the case and finally find Henry's killer.

"Cases aren't just solved by a CSI paw print or a finger print, they really are solved by having people give us information that we can go and verify," said Klinkhart. "Without that this case will still have to be solved, I would still be waiting here waiting to find somebody."

Anchorage police say citizens should not assume the police know everything, and they do need the community's help in solving murders. You can even give information anonymously by calling 561-STOP.

To contact the Newsroom, call 907-274-1111.