Monroe police are closing the case on the 1977 murder of 8-year-old girl Renee Freer after the state's attorney general denied approving the arrest warrant for a person of interest due to the expiration of the statute of limitations and the age of the suspect at the time of the arrest.

Police say Renee was murdered in the woods behind her home on June 22, 1977. Newspaper reports said that her mother went to a store and left Renee in the care of her grandparents. Hours later, police found her body in the woods not far from her home.

They say she was hit repeatedly in the face with a rock that was found near her body.

In recent years, police reexamined the evidence using new advancements in technology – reanalyzed statements and reinterviewed several people. They say back in July they submitted a juvenile arrest warrant to the state's attorney's office to support the arrest of a suspect for manslaughter in the first degree.

Police say in September the state's attorney denied approving the arrest warrant because the manslaughter prosecution is subject to a five-year statute of limitations rendering it time barred since 1977.

Although the state's attorney considered a murder prosecution, the law in effect at the time of the crime bars a murder prosecution based on the age of the suspect.

Police say that given the status of the investigation and the opinion of the state's attorney, the case has been marked as closed.