A jury convicted the 65-year-old retired janitor of strangling a woman 32 years ago.

Roy Beaulieu's second-degree murder trial wrapped up Wednesday after the prosecution finished presenting its case Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Beaulieu strangled 63-year-old Laura Bruce in May 1976 near Ladysmith. He was charged after Bruce's body was exhumed at her son's request in 2006 and a forensics expert ruled she had been strangled.

Roy Beaulieu showed no emotion when the judge read the guilty verdict, but it was a different story for Laura Bruce’s family.

"It was a long time coming. Family’s been very patient waiting for it,” says Bruce’s son, Melvin Bruce.

During the trial the defense attorney called only four witnesses to the stand, but not Beaulieu.

"She was dead. And he hurt her badly and he killed her,” says District Attorney Kathy Pakes.

The state argued Beaulieu killed Bruce by manual strangulation, but the defense tried to prove otherwise, calling the doctor who performed the first autopsy.

"Did you find any evidence of struggle?" asks Defense Attorney Robert Ferg.

"A what?" asks the doctor who performed the first autopsy.

"A struggle,” Ferg asks again.

"No, I didn’t,” he says.

Along with other evidence, the defense focused on the hyoid bone, which doctors say sits just under the chin and usually breaks when someone is strangled. A defense witness testified Bruce’s hyoid bone had a fracture in it, so the attorneys argued over how it go there.

Beaulieu told investigators he fell on Bruce, which doctors say could have broken that bone.

"A relatively large person falling on an elderly, fairly elderly woman with osteoporotic bones, you could certainly break the ribs in the area that are broken. And if that area of the neck is exposed, you could break the hyoid bone,” says a medical examiner from Minnesota.

But at the end of the day, the jury decided he was guilty.

"We’re just thankful it was able to be completed,” said Melvin Bruce.

Beaulieu's bond has been revoked and he will remain in jail until his sentencing, which will be at a later date.