Marc Karun, the man arrested in the decades-old murder of a sixth grader from Norwalk, is on his way back to Connecticut after waiving extradition from Maine.

Norwalk police say state police in Maine arrested Karun, 53, Wednesday outside his home. Police executed an arrest warrant for Karun for the sexual assault and murder of Kathleen Flynn, which occurred on Sept. 23, 1986.

His arrest warrant is more than 50 pages and shows that his name came up multiple times during the long investigation. Karun was even questioned by police just two weeks after Flynn’s murder.

MORE: Arrest made in 1986 cold case murder of 11-year-old Norwalk girl 

Police found the girl raped and strangled in the woods about 100 feet from the path she took to walk home from school. It was an incident that affected the community for generations.

“We were very fearful to let our kids go out and do anything on their own,” says Donna Rende, a neighbor to Kathleen’s mother, Esther. “She was a very sweet, quiet little girl.”

 Karun, a Norwalk native living in Stetson, Maine, would have been about 20 years old at the time of the crime. Court documents show police interviewed him as a potential suspect at the start because the case resembled another sexual assault in which Karun had been arrested.

In that case, the charges were reduced after the victim decided not to testify. That was just weeks before Flynn was killed.

In the years after, Karun was convicted of several sexual assaults – all following the same pattern as Kathleen's case. Those incidents and advancements in DNA technology eventually led to this week's charges.

Karun will be arraigned in Norwalk court Monday. Police plan to hold a news conference on the case Tuesday.

Kathleen's parents released a statement thanking Norwalk police for bringing Kathleen's alleged killer to justice and requesting privacy during this difficult time.