On September 17, 1991, Cynthia Gonzalez was reported missing from Arlington. Her body was found five days later in a rural area of Johnson County, according to Arlington PD. She had been shot multiple times and was decomposing.

On Monday, the Arlington Police Department and the University of Texas at Arlington announced an arrest in the 34-year-old cold case murder. 

Sixty-three-year-old Janie Perkins has been arrested and charged in the 1991 murder of Gonzalez.

Police said Gonzalez and Perkins had been friends who frequently spent time together, but both became romantically involved with the same man. Several weeks before Gonzalez’s murder, police said the man told Perkins that he was breaking things off with her to be with Gonzalez.

UTA students help family find answers in 34-year-old Arlington murder case  

Pictures captured decades ago are the only way Jessica Roberts can see her mother, Cynthia Gonzales.

Roberts was just six years old when her mother was murdered.

“She was a very good mother,” Roberts said. “She was really involved.”

She had no answers to her mother’s untimely death in childhood, but 34 years later, she discovered police had made an arrest.

“I was very shocked. I thought the day would never come. I’d almost given up,” Roberts said.

Arlington Police Chief Al Jones believes the murder stemmed from a love triangle between a man, the suspect, and the victim.

“Detectives of the 90s looked at her [Perkins] because they learned that she and Miss Gonzales had shared a love interest prior to the murder, so he was calling things off with her to be with Miss Gonzales,” Jones said.

Arlington Police don’t have a cold case unit, but University of Texas at Arlington criminal justice professor Patricia Eddings had an idea.

“I kept hearing him say, ‘There’s not enough time.’ To go through the files is what he was saying. And I’m like, ‘I’ve got these brilliant students that have time,'” Eddings said.

The university started a partnership with the police this fall to allow criminal justice students to get real-life experience investigating cold cases. Jacey Concannon is one of 15 students who dedicated their time to help solve the case.

“It was emotional,” Concannon said. “I would say we spent at least over 100 hours. We were there two, three, four hours before the class even started, and then we stayed two to three hours after.”

Roberts remains grateful to the group of students who helped the family find closure. The class is also working on two other cold cases.

More from CBS News