Patricia Moreno: Arrest Made In 30-Year-Old Malden Cold Case

MALDEN, MA — A Georgia man has been charged with the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old girl in Malden 30 years ago.

Rodney Daniels, 48, was arrested in South Fulton, GA after a Middlesex grand jury indicted him on a charge of first-degree murder on Monday. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court on Thursday.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said Daniels fatally shot 17-year-old Patricia Moreno, whose foster sister Daniels had been dating. Moreno was found with a gunshot wound to the head on the fire escape of a Henry Street apartment around 3 a.m. on July 20, 1991.

Ryan said Daniels, who occasionally stayed at the apartment, was interviewed shortly after Moreno's murder. He initially told investigators he had been sleeping in an armchair in the living room when he was awakened by two gunshots.

Investigators learned that Daniels had engaged in "threatening behavior" toward Moreno in the weeks leading up to the shooting and was known to have "multiple" handguns, Ryan said.

Police also found a new witness who lived in the apartment below Moreno's foster family at the time of the murder. That witness said he was awakened by a loud noise and looked up at the fire escape, where he saw someone matching Daniels's description immediately disappear back into the apartment, Ryan said.

Ryan credited her office's Cold Case Unit with the arrest.

"When someone loses a loved one to a homicide, we will not give up in our pursuit," she said.