A man's spit leads to his arrest in the unsolved murder of a Boston woman in 1988

More than thirty years after young mother Karen Taylor was found stabbed to death in her Boston apartment, a man has been charged with her murder.

James Holloman was linked to Taylor's death after her body was discovered in 1988, as authorities found a check made out to him next to her body. However, police have not been able to forensically link him to the case until now, according to CBS News, WCVB and WHDH.

After Holloman, 65, spat on the sidewalk outside his Boston home last year, authorities were able to link his DNA to the 36-year-old unsolved case, media reported.

Investigators concluded that Holloman's DNA matched DNA found under Taylor's fingernails at the time of her murder, as well as a bloody sweatshirt and cigarette found next to her body, officials told WCVB.

Based on this new forensic evidence, Boston police arrested Holloman, who has no prior criminal record, on Thursday, September 19. His next hearing is scheduled for October 29.

According to CBS News, Holloman's attorney said he doubted his client's DNA could be linked to Taylor's murder even after so long.

Meanwhile, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden told the newspaper: “This is an example of the excellent investigative work of detectives and prosecutors using modern criminology.”

“But most of all,” Hayden continued, “it is an opportunity for Karen Taylor's family to see someone take responsibility for her death after so many years of unanswered questions.”

Boston police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

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Taylor was found dead in her apartment in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood on May 27, 1988. She was 25 years old at the time.

Her body was discovered after her mother called the apartment and Taylor's 3-year-old daughter answered the phone and explained that her mother “was sleeping and she couldn't wake her,” a statement from the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said, according to WHDH.

“The mother went to Taylor's apartment at 37 Williams Street in Roxbury but was unable to enter the building,” the statement continued. “She walked around the back of the building and crawled through the window of her daughter's first floor bedroom, where she found her daughter lying face down in a pool of blood.”

According to her autopsy, Taylor had been stabbed 15 times in the chest, head and neck area.