 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. Palma will be tranported to the Oklahoma County Jail. 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. 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. Midwest City Police revealed in a press conference on Tuesday that DNA evidence links Palma to Kirsten's disappearance. 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. 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. 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."
– 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.)