PERRY, Ga. (AP) — The suspect in the 1975 death of a teenager in Georgia has died before she could be put on trial.

Georgia news outlets report that 16-year-old Cheryl White and then 18-year-old Mary Jane Stewart were roommates living in an apartment complex in the city of Warner Robins when White was found stabbed to death on the morning of Nov. 12, 1975.

It took decades to build the case but Stewart was arrested in White’s death in 2017 in Texas and released on bond. Trial had been set for May.

But, authorities only recently learned that the 61-year-old Stewart died in hospice care in October.

Houston County assistant district attorney Eric Edwards says he hopes Stewart’s arrest and indictment can help bring Cheryl White’s family some form of closure.