FLAGSTAFF -- A man accused in the 1981 death of a California engineer in northern Arizona has been found not guilty.

A Coconino County Superior Court jury returned the verdict Thursday in the second-degree murder trial of Robert Resendez.

Resendez was accused of shooting 51-year-old Jerry Heath, dumping his body near Flagstaff and taking his vehicle. The case went cold for 32 years before the county sheriff's office submitted the fingerprints originally collected from the scene to the FBI and some of the prints were linked to Resendez.

Court documents state that the vehicle Heath was driving from his Texas job to his home in Lompoc, California, was found abandoned along Interstate 10 on August 26, 1981. Heath's remains were discovered east of Flagstaff the following month.