ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A jury trial date was set Monday for Michael Lapniewski Jr., who was accused of killing an elderly St. Petersburg nearly four decades ago in a cold case investigators say was solved using modern DNA technology.
Lapniewski is scheduled to face a jury beginning Monday, May 11, on a charge of first-degree murder. A judge set aside five days for the trial during a court hearing.
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Lapniewski is charged in the 1987 killing of Opal Weil, an 82-year-old woman found dead inside her St. Petersburg home. Court documents said the cause of death was blunt trauma and strangulation.
The case remained unsolved for more than 30 years.
In 2020, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit reopened the investigation and submitted evidence to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Parabon Nanolabs for advanced genetic genealogy testing. Investigators said the testing ultimately led them to Lapniewski.
Michael Lapniewski (WFLA)
Authorities arrested Lapniewski on Jan. 26, 2023, in Mississippi after obtaining a DNA sample that investigators said matched evidence recovered from the crime scene. At the time of Weil’s death, Lapniewski was living less than a mile from her home, according to investigators.
The arrest brought long-awaited developments for Weil’s family in a case that had gone unanswered for decades.
Lapniewski remains in custody. Detectives said the investigation remains ongoing.
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