A suspect accused of raping and killing a college student was caught by police in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Sunday after eluding justice for 28 years.

On March 24, 1992, a female student at Nanjing Medical University－then known as Nanjing Medical College－was found dead in a well in the courtyard of a teaching building.

The student, surnamed Lin, went missing after studying in a classroom on the evening of March 20.Forensics later confirmed that she was hit on the head with a blunt object and raped before her body was stuffed upside down in the well.

Sun Yuhai, director of the criminal investigation bureau under the Nanjing Public Security Bureau, said that hundreds of police officers were sent to form a special investigation unit after the murder.

"The police investigated more than 15,000 people at the time but failed to solve the case due to technological limits," he said. "On Wednesday, by using the latest technologies we found that the suspect is surnamed Ma and is from Xuzhou."

On Sunday, they arrested the 54-year-old suspect in a residential community in Nanjing whose DNA was identical to semen found at the crime scene.

Ma, a driver with Sumec Group in Nanjing, confessed to the crime during interrogation.

Some Sumec workers said that Ma treated people nicely and they were shocked to learn that he was a suspect in such a crime. They added that he also made money by raising and selling dogs.

On March 24 every year, Lin's mother would either visit Nanjing from Wuxi or call Nanjing police to ask about any developments of the case. Lin's father died several years after the murder.

Some teachers said that Lin's mother also used to visit the classroom where her daughter was last seen alive every year.

She had to stop in 2011 due to health problems.

Nanjing Medical University said on its Weibo account that justice has been served after 28 years.