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 A suspect was arrested in the 1997 disappearance of 8-year-old Oklahoma girl Kirsten Hatfield only because the new investigator on the case discovered that crucial evidence was never tested 18 years ago, court documents show. 
 
 Anthony Joseph Palma, 56, was arrested Monday at his home in the town of Midwest City — just two homes down the street from the house Kirsten's family was living in when she vanished in May 1997. He was being held without bond on suspicion of first-degree murder and kidnapping. 
 
 Kristin is still missing but her family was "hopeful" and "grateful" for news of the arrest, said Chris Hazen, the current husband of Kirsten's mother, Shannon. 
 
 Kirsten Hatfield in 1997 at age 8 and in a computer projection of what she would have looked like in 2013 at age 24. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 
 
 "We're OK," Hazen said, according to NBC station KFOR of Oklahoma City. "This has just been a terrible nightmare to my wife ever since it happened." 
 
 The break in the case came when it was reassigned in June to Midwest City police Detective Darrell Miller. 
 
 According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed Monday in Oklahoma County District Court, Miller requested FBI assistance in reviewing all of the old evidence and discovered that several key pieces — most notable among them bloodstains on Kirsten's underwear, which was found in the backyard, and on her bedroom windowsill — either went untested or came back inconclusive because the technology to test it at the time was limited. 
 
 Anthony Palma in an undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Midwest City, Oklahoma, Police Department via AP 
 
 The State Bureau of Investigation's crime lab found a DNA match to Palma in July, putting its odds of certainty at 263 sextillion to 1, according to the affidavit. 
 
 "The evidence shows that Kirsten may have been targeted by Palma for sexual assault," Miller wrote in the affidavit. "It is likely that Palma has been motivated to stay in the same home to conceal evidence of the crime and/or the location of Kristen's body." 
 
 State corrections records show that Palma — who has lived at the same Midwest City address since 1991 — was convicted of assault and/or battery with a dangerous weapon in the early 1980s and was released from prison in 1986. Details of that conviction weren't immediately available. ||||| An arrest has been made in the case of Kirsten Hatfield, who went missing in 1997. 
 
 KOCO learned Monday that Anthony Palma had been arrested in connection with her disappearance after 18 years of investigation. 
 
 Video: Kirsten Hatfield's family members speak on break in investigation 
 
 Palma was arrested on complaints of first-degree murder and kidnapping. He has been transferred to Oklahoma County Jail. 
 
 READ: Affidavit released in Midwest City cold case 
 
 According to court documents, on July 22, a DNA sample matching Palma was found in evidence collected in 1997. The match came after items were sent to OSBI for testing that had not been tested before, according to the court documents. 
 
 Investigators said they believe Palma targeted Hatfield for sexual assault. They said evidence supported that claim, including his blood being on her partially ripped underwear and her window sill. 
 
 Video: Authorities discuss arrest in investigation of Midwest City's girl's disappearance 
 
 “It’s proverbial needle in a haystack -- how fortunate, lucky we were in this case,” Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said. 
 
 Police said because Hatfield has not been sighted since 1997, it can be concluded that she was killed shortly after her abduction. 
 
 Hatfield went missing on May 14, 1997. Midwest City police said evidence indicated that she had been taken from her bedroom window. Police said the trail went cold, but on June 13, 2015, an officer was assigned to follow up on the cold case. 
 
 The officer said he went through all the evidence previously collected and decided to re-submit some evidence for testing. The investigators continued working the case and said they collected DNA from all men they interviewed. 
 
 On June 1, investigators said they interviewed Palma, who was also interviewed twice in 1997. The investigators said his interview was inconsistent with information gathered in 1997. Officers said Palma's DNA match to evidence found at the scene was one in 293 sextillion. 
 
 Video: Midwest City neighborhood where girl was kidnapped continues to be at center of investigation 
 
 Midwest City police are continuing to investigate the case, and say there could possibly be additional suspects. Investigators said Palma had been under their surveillance for some time. 
 
 Chris Hazen, who married Hatfield's mother, Shannon, two years after Kirsten disappeared, spoke briefly to the media Tuesday, and called the situation a "terrible nightmare for my wife." ||||| MORE VIDEO Arrest made in Midwest City disappearance case Palma now in Oklahoma County Jail 
 
 Midwest City Police think they've had a break in an 18-year-old homicide case. On Tuesday FOX 25 learned more about the man police say kidnapped and murdered a young girl. 56-year-old Anthony Palma is now in police custody. 
 
 Kirsten Hatfield was kidnapped out of her bedroom window in her Midwest City home in 1997. That home is located on Jet Drive, near S.E. 15th and Air Depot Blvd. Police found her ripped panties with blood on them left on the window sill of her bedroom. She hasn't been heard from since and police never made an arrest until now. 
 
 "We want to take this opportunity to let all of our family and friends know that we're OK and please continue to pray for us," said Kirsten's step-father Chris Hazen. 
 
 Hazen along with Kirsten's mom Shannon say they're tired but hopeful this nightmare they've been living in for 18 years could soon be over. 
 
 "We have worked continuously on this case for 18 years," said Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes. "We're emotionally invested in this case." 
 
 Midwest City Police revealed in a press conference on Tuesday that DNA evidence links Palma to Kirsten's disappearance. The connection comes from evidence taken the day Kirsten was taken. Police kept cigarettes, a syringe, a beer bottle and blood found on both Kirsten's panties and her windowsill. Police say none of that evidence was DNA tested and could say why it wasn't. 
 
 "We're realizing more and more as technology advances, we see the ability to conduct more sensitive testing," said OSBI director Stan Florence. 
 
 With the DNA in hand, Midwest City Police tracked down at least ten men associated with the case and re-interviewed them and obtained their DNA samples. In July of 2015, the OSBI revealed the DNA from the scene and Palma's DNA matched. Police arrested Palma this past Monday night. 
 
 "This is the initial stage of this case," said Chief Clabes. "We have a lot more work to do in reference to this case." 
 
 Police are confident that Palma killed Kirsten, but her body has never been located. Her family is hoping that's the next step in this investigation. 
 
 "I wanted to say thank you to all the police, law enforcement that's helping solve this case because it's just been a terrible nightmare to my wife ever since it happened," Hazen said. 
 
 Palma will be tranported to the Oklahoma County Jail. He faces charges of kidnapping and first degree murder.
– Investigators believe an ex-con in an Oklahoma City suburb murdered his 8-year-old neighbor and got away with it for 18 years. Kirsten Hatfield disappeared from her bedroom in Midwest City on the night of May 14, 1997, and Anthony Palma, who lived two houses away, was arrested this week on charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder, KOCO reports. The breakthrough in the cold case came after a new investigator took over in June and discovered that key pieces of evidence—including bloodstains on the girl's bedroom window sill and on her underwear, found in her backyard—were never tested for DNA, reports NBC News. Palma, who was released from prison in 1986 after serving time for assault with a dangerous weapon, still lives in the same home, and an arrest warrant states that he probably stayed there "to conceal evidence of the crime and/or the location of [Kirsten's] body," reports NBC. Fox 25 reports that the 56-year-old was interviewed after the 1997 disappearance and provided a DNA sample this year when investigators finally tested the evidence and spoke to 10 suspects in the case. Court documents state that the DNA match to the evidence was 293 sextillion to 1. Police believe Palma targeted the girl for sexual assault and killed her soon after her abduction, reports KOCO. Her body has never been found. (A woman thought to have been murdered in 1984 was found alive and well in Dusseldorf.)