A Boston man was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Caryn Bonner on Tuesday, more than 25 years after the 34-year-old was found stabbed to death in her Dorchester apartment.

After remaining an unsolved case for decades, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office connected 54-year-old convicted murderer Cornell Bell to Bonner’s killing through DNA evidence, the district attorney’s office said in a Wednesday press release.

Bell pleaded not guilty to the murder charge during his arraignment in Suffolk County Superior Court on Tuesday.

“We never consider a homicide case unsolvable, no matter how much time has elapsed,” Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in the release.

Bonner’s sister found her body in the kitchen of Bonner’s apartment at 467 Columbia Road on May 19, 1999, the district attorney’s office said. At the time, Bonner’s sister hadn’t heard from her in several days and was checking up on her.

For a time, Bell was on the run from police. He was added to Massachusetts State Police’s Most Wanted List after being charged with the murder of his estranged girlfriend, Michele Clarke.

Clarke was killed in Weymouth on Aug. 19, 2017. After harassing Clarke at work, Bell went to her home and waited for her to return, according to State Police. A fatal confrontation ensued when she got home. Bell then fled in her truck, which was recovered in Florida days later.

A Norfolk County jury found Bell guilty of murdering Clarke in July 2022, the district attorney’s office said. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and is currently serving out his sentence.

After Bell was convicted, his DNA profile was entered into the FBI’s national DNA database, the district attorney’s office said. As a result, investigators discovered that his profile matched DNA recovered from a cigarette butt found in Bonner’s apartment.

Following the breakthrough in the case, investigators revisited other evidence in Bonner’s killing, the district attorney’s office said. They then linked one of Bell’s fingerprints to a latent fingerprint found in blood in Bonner’s apartment using crime scene photos.

The district attorney’s office did not speak to a potential motive in Bonner’s killing.

In the wake of Bonner’s death, her mother described her to The Boston Herald as a happy, kind-hearted person with many friends, whose favorite activity was watching sports on TV. Bonner’s neighbors told the newspaper she was known for running errands for older adults in her apartment building.

Bell is due back in court on Feb. 19.

Connecticut is seeing rapid growth in a statewide program that offers automatic college admission to qualifying high school seniors.

New data shows more than 19,000 students received an admissions offer in the 2024-2025 school year through the Connecticut Automatic Admissions Program, which began in the 2023-2024.

How does it work?

The program allows Connecticut high school seniors with a weighted GPA of 3.0 or an unweighted GPA of 2.75 to receive automatic acceptance to participating colleges and universities. Students still need to submit a simplified application to claim their spot, but they receive the acceptance up front.

The following colleges and universities currently participate:

• Central Connecticut State University
• Eastern Connecticut State University
• Southern Connecticut State University
• Western Connecticut State University
• Albertus Magnus College
• Goodwin University
• Mitchell College
• University of Bridgeport
• University of Hartford
• University of New Haven

Central Connecticut State University junior Brianna Renna said she never believed college was possible until learning she qualified.

“It’s kind of nerve-racking because, of course, the anxiety is like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to make it, even though I had the GPA for it, I had everything I needed’,” Renna said. “But it was like ‘Yes! I made it!’”

A paradigm shift for college admissions

It’s an experience more Connecticut students are having. The program is run through the Common App, an online platform that allows students to apply to colleges and universities with a single application.

Jenny Rickard, CEO of the Common App, said the direct admissions model is gaining traction nationally.

“What this does is really say right out of the gate: ‘you have options,’” Rickard said.

The CEO said that many students fear judgment during application review in the admissions process: “That is the big psychological barrier for students who also don’t realize that most colleges admit most of their applicants.”

Reaching new students

The latest numbers show the program is reaching key student groups. First‑generation and low‑income students were twice as likely to respond to their automatic admissions offer compared with other students, according to a new Common App report.

“It really flips the whole narrative. The student becomes the selective one because they’ve got so many choices,” Rickard said. “To give students more agency and confidence, I think, is the most important part of this program because they can then take advantage of the opportunities that they deserve.”

The benefit for colleges

Administrators at Connecticut State Colleges and Universities said the school has seen a big increase in applications for the program.

By December 2025, Central, Eastern, Southern, and Western Connecticut State Universities received a total of 12,385 applications.

From November 2024 to 2025, applications under the program increased nearly 20%, according to data provided by CSCU.

Roughly 2,000 students enrolled via the program last year.

“We know we’re absolutely going to blow that number out of the water,” said Dr. John Maduko, Interim Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Chancellor.

He said the program removes barriers that often discourage students.

“It’s never been about intelligence or lack of ability. It’s always been about these barriers,” Maduko said.

The state system is waiving application fees, essays, and letters of recommendation.

“Those are barriers, right? So when it’s income, then we have income-dependent families. You have to be selective on the number of institutions here to apply to,” Maduko said. “The CAAP program eliminates that barrier and gives more choices and options of destinations to the students.”

Metrics to watch

The report states that only 46% completed the application to at least one institution that extended them an offer.

Leaders say the next priority is expanding outreach and communication, which is already underway this school year. (The admissions data in the report were from the 2024-2025 school year.)

Read the report in full here:

Interim Chancellor Maduko said CSCU had more intentional outreach this year with high school district partners about inconsistencies in the application process.

“As a system, we always have to create the right conditions to make this process conducive and accessible and approachable for families,” Maduko said.

Rickard at Common App said helping students understand the opportunity is key.

“A big learning is to make sure that you have the people within the community who are supporting students, help them understand what this opportunity is,” she said.

Empowering students

Rickard said this is reversing some of the stressors around the enrollment process for students.

“The fact this is not only streamlining the process, but it is empowering students is huge,” Rickard said.

She talked about research from a decade ago that found counselors and applicants never used words to describe the application process as simple, logical, joyful, or equitable.

With this program and others like it around the country, the tide is changing.

“Where I get really excited about this particular initiative is that it’s simple. Hopefully it’s logical. It’s joyful in that there’s confetti in advance, right? You know you have an opportunity. And then equitable, because we’re really focused on that first generation and low-income community in terms of trying to make the process more equitable for them,” Rickard said.