Investigators keep fingerprints found at a crime scene and routinely run cold case fingerprint comparisons against the national database for matches. The fingerprint from a 1972 unsolved murder case matched Tommie Mollohan who is currently incarcerated for a murder from 1973.
Fingerprints submitted for non-criminal purposes are also added to the national fingerprint database. The faster investigators can match fingerprints to an individual the faster they can solve cases where fingerprint evidence was obtained.