Adam Durborow allegedly killed Sherry Black, 64, at B&W Billiards and Books in Salt Lake City, Utah

A teenage boy battered a grandmother to death in the rare book shop she owned, then sexually assaulted her after doing so, police say. Adam Durborow allegedly killed Sherry Black, 64, at B&W Billiards and Books in Salt Lake City, Utah, in November 2010, when he was 19. Durborow, now 29, was arrested on suspicion of Black’s murder grandmother on October 10 and made his first court appearance on Wednesday. He was assigned a public defender and is due back in court on November 2.

Durborow was identified as Black’s alleged murderer thanks to new DNA techniques which pinpointed him as the prime suspect. South Salt Lake Police worked with Parabon NanoLabs and ‘surreptitiously’ obtained a sample of Duborow’s DNA from a public place.

Similar investigations have seen that compared to DNA uploaded by members of the public to ancestry websites, with investigators then able to pinpoint possible relatives and work back towards their suspected killer. They insisted all techniques available to them at the time of Black’s murder had been used to try and find her killer.

Black was found partially clothed in her shop days after Thanksgiving 2010, with a medical examiner ruling that she had died from blunt force trauma, and sharp wounds to her body. The Salt Lake Tribune also reported there were signs that Black had been sexually assaulted after her death. Police have yet to share a possible motive for Black’s death.

Durborow has a lengthy criminal history, including attempted rape of a child under 14 in 2006, as well as multiple aggravated assault charges. Those charges were later reduced as part of a plea deal. Black’s son-in-law Greg Miller paid tribute to her in 2012, saying: ‘She was a 64-year-old lady, unarmed, without an enemy in the world. ‘Everybody loved her, and someone came in and brutally murdered her.’