Police arrested a suspect in the kidnapping and killing of Reno teenager Brianna Denison, ending an exhaustive 10-month-long manhunt for the college student's alleged murderer.

James Michael Biela, 27, of Sparks, Nev., was taken into custody Tuesday night and booked at the Washoe County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault, authorities said. He was being held without bail.

Denison, 19, was abducted while she was sleeping at a friend's house during winter break in January.

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Biela provided a DNA sample that matched evidence found at the scene where Denison's body was found in February, a family member of the victim said early Wednesday.

"Can you believe it?" the girl's aunt, Lauren Denison, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "The police said the DNA came back, and it's him. ... This is what we have been waiting for."

Reno police planned a 1:30 p.m. EST news conference about what department spokesman Steve Frady said was the arrest of a suspect in the Denison slaying.

Denison, a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College in California, was kidnapped about 4:30 a.m. Jan. 20 as she slept in the living room of a friend's rented home near the University of Nevada's Reno campus. Denison had likely been visible through a glass door, according to police.

Her body was found in near a business park in south Reno on Feb. 15 after a massive search. An autopsy determined she had been raped and strangled and left there about a week earlier.

Investigators said from the beginning they believed the suspect, who taunted police by leaving two pair of intertwined women's panties at the site where Denison's body was found, lived in the area.

Police said they collected DNA evidence at the crime scene that would link the suspect to her murder and to at least two other sexually-motivated attacks on women on or near the campus between October and December of 2007.

Public records show Biela has lived in the Reno area since 2002.

Denison graduated from Reno High School in 2006. She was visiting her hometown during winter break when she was kidnapped and killed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.