Key keywords: Henderson cold case arrest, murdered daughter husband suspect, Henderson family justice, cold case homicide breakthrough, Thank you Jesus Henderson couple, unsolved Henderson daughter killing, forensic DNA technology cold case, Clark County cold case resolution Henderson residents Tom and Linda Henderson, whose 28-year-old daughter Sarah Johnson was found dead in her suburban Nevada home in 2017, are speaking out after authorities announced a cold-case arrest of Johnson’s husband, Michael Rivera, earlier this week. The couple’s first public reaction to the news, a tearful exclamation of “Thank you Jesus!” has spread across local and national news outlets, as community members rally around the family in celebration of the long-awaited breakthrough. For seven years, the Hendersons refused to let their daughter’s case fade from public view. They organized annual memorial walks for Sarah, raised more than $75,000 to fund local cold case investigation efforts, and met with Henderson Police Department investigators every three months to request updates on any new leads. At the time of Sarah’s death, investigators named Rivera, then 31, as a person of interest after learning the couple had been involved in months of contentious divorce proceedings, and Sarah had told her parents multiple times that “if anything happens to me, Michael did it.” However, limited forensic evidence and conflicting witness statements at the time left prosecutors unable to file charges, and the case was designated a cold case in 2019. The breakthrough came earlier this year, when the Henderson Police Department’s newly formed Cold Case Unit reprocessed physical evidence from the crime scene using next-generation DNA sequencing technology, which was not widely available for forensic use in 2017. Investigators found previously undetected DNA evidence linking Rivera directly to the scene of the murder, along with new witness testimony from a former neighbor who came forward earlier this year with details of a loud altercation between the couple the night before Sarah’s body was found. Rivera, now 38, was taken into custody without incident on Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas, where he had been living since selling the couple’s Henderson home in 2018. He is currently being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $1 million bail, facing charges of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement. The Hendersons told reporters they plan to attend every court hearing in the case, and are holding out hope for a guilty verdict that will finally give their daughter the justice she deserves. “We waited seven years for this day,” Linda Henderson said in a press briefing. “We never lost faith, and now we finally get to make sure Michael pays for what he did to our little girl.”