The Solano County District Attorney's Office charged a state prison inmate Tuesday with the 1984 kidnapping and homicide of a 3-year-old boy.
Michael Anthony Blas Fejarang, 57, an inmate at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, is accused of the murder and kidnapping of Clark Toshiro Handa on Aug. 22, 1984.
"Your heart always thinks he's out there. We always thought even though he may have been abducted by bad people, maybe he would end up in a good situation," said Earl Handa, the victim's uncle.
The boy was abducted from the bedroom at his home on Magellan Road, now Auto Mall Parkway, Fairfield police Lt. Rob Lenke said.
A ransom note demanding money for the boy's safe return was found, but the boy's family did not hear further from the kidnapper and the boy was not returned home, Lenke said. Fairfield police and the FBI continued investigating the case.
The Fairfield Police Department's Cold Case Unit and the FBI reexamined the case in 2011 and obtained evidence that led to the identification of Fejarang, a friend of the Handa family at the time, as the suspect, Lenke said.
"New things like technology come into play to help us evaluate evidence in different ways, gives us new clues and avenues for the investigation to follow," Fairfield Police Sgt. Jeff Osgood said. "And that's what happened in this case."
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Lenke would not disclose that evidence.
"To be able to come up with some leads and to be able to solve something from 1984 is huge," Lenke said.
Fejarang is serving a 26-year prison term for separate child molestation cases in Solano County in 1981, 2001 and 2002, Lenke said.
The district attorney's office will work with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to transfer Fejarang to Solano County for trial, Lenke said.
The case was filed in Solano County Superior Court Tuesday, according to the court docket. The case remains an active investigation and no further information will be released, Lenke said.
NBC Bay Area's Cheryl Hurd contributed to this report.
