Convicted sex offender charged with murder in 1966 beating death of 10-year-old Massachusetts girl

A 73-year-old convicted sex offender has been charged in connection with the 1966 disappearance and death of a 10-year-old Massachusetts girl, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Donald Mars was arraigned on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Betty Lou Zukowski, who left her Chicopee home on the evening of May 26, 1966, and was found beaten to death several days later in the Westfield River in West Springfield, prosecutors said in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield.

A not guilty plea was entered on Mars' behalf.