There were two major developments Wednesday afternoon in the 1980 slaying of a Verona woman.

        • William Major, the man accused of killing his wife, Helen Marlene Major, did not fight extradition to Kentucky during an afternoon hearing in Massachusetts, said Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Paula Clifford. Mr. Major is expected to arrive in Kentucky this week.

Major

        • Boone County Lt. Jack Banks said DNA from a skull, believed to be that of Mrs. Major, matched samples taken from Mrs. Major's daughter. The skull, found by hunters in a field near the Majors' Verona residence in 1981, had been sent to Labcorp in North Carolina for DNA analysis.

        Mr. Major, 57, of Fairhaven, Mass., is charged in Kentucky with murder, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. He has been held without bail at the Bristol County jail in Dartmouth, Mass., since June 25.

        “It makes me very happy that he is behind bars and that he is going to be staying there,” said Mrs. Major's mother, Lorraine Oaks of Lancaster, Ky. “We felt for sure he (Mr. Major) did it, and that the skull was that of Marlene.”

        Authorities speculate that Mr. Major shot his wife, cut off her head, and knocked out her teeth and jaw to make it hard for police to identify. At the time, DNA testing hadn't been fully developed, leaving authorities more dependent on dental records for identification.

        The skull was found on a nearby farm about a year after Mrs. Major disappeared. It had been shot several times and the teeth and jaw were missing. The rest of the body hasnot been recovered.

        Mrs. Major was last seen the night of Oct. 10, 1980, at her trailer home on Warehouse Road in Verona. She lived with Mr. Major and their two children. Mr. Major told police his wife left after an argument over a car they had purchased. A house guest reported her missing to police.

        About a week later, Mr. Major left the state with his two children. He was later convicted in Rhode Island for sexual assault and served time in prison there.

        Authorities say a break in the Kentucky case came when Mr. Major, bound to a wheelchair after a stroke, confessed to his father twice — the second time in a taped telephone conversation in March.

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