Sixty-one-year-old Joan Litts Yale was found dead at the bottom of steps leading to the basement of the couple's Middle Smithfield Township home in March 2001.
An East Bangor man has been ordered to stand trial in the death of his wife a dozen years ago.
A judge on Wednesday sent the criminal homicide and evidence-tampering case against Edward Yale, 74, of the 300 block of Bray Street, to Monroe County Court.
Sixty-one-year-old Joan Litts Yale was found dead at the bottom of steps leading to the basement of the couple's Middle Smithfield Township home in March 2001.
State police took another look as part of a cold case initiative and said a forensic pathologist found the woman's injuries inconsistent with a fall. Police also cited inconsistencies with the defendant's account of events that day.
Yale denied to reporters today that he was responsible for his wife's death. Relatives of the victim say they're grateful that charges have been filed.
"We're just so happy that this just didn't get put on the shelf, that somebody reopened it and somebody looked into it, " her son Randy Litts, speaking on behalf of his brother, Ronald Litts, and his uncles, Harold and Rick Meyers, said last week. "Now it is Mom's turn to tell her story."