The Fayetteville Police Department is reopening a 40-year-old murder case, saying they hope advances in technology will help lead to an arrest.

Brenda Covington, 25, was raped, beaten and stabbed to death in a wooded area near Brinkley Street on March 1, 1979. She died 24 hours later at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.

Family members of Covington gathered at the Fayetteville Police Department on Tuesday when police announced they were reopening the case.

Sgt. Michael Bohannon, a member of the department’s cold case investigative team, said investigators found the undergarments and pants that Covington was wearing at the time she was attacked. He said the items were misplaced when the Police Department moved from the basement at the Cumberland County Courthouse in the 1990s to its current location.