Deaf man facing trial 30 years after pregnant teen girlfriend was murdered in Chicago suburb

(CBS) - Dawn Niles was 15 years old and three months pregnant when she went missing on March 17, 1981 after leaving high school that afternoon with her boyfriend Gary Albert. Her body was discovered five days later and appeared to have been stabbed repeatedly, authorities said.

Thirty years later, the now 48-year-old Albert faces murder charges for the killing, with a trial date expected to be set for later this summer, according to a report.

Albert was charged with first-degree murder in 2008, after his DNA was linked to the victim's body, according to Cook County sheriff's police, reports The Chicago Tribune.

Niles was hearing-impaired and both she and Albert belonged to the high school's drama club for the deaf, and the local chapter of the Junior Illinois Association for the Deaf, according to the paper.

The fact that the defendant and a number of witnesses are hearing-impaired presents some logistical issues for trial. A recent pretrial hearing raised the possibility of using as many as three sign language interpreters at the same time, reports the paper.

Prosecutors plan to present statements Niles allegedly made to friends that Albert knew about her pregnancy, and that they had many fights over it. She reportedly told friends that Albert suggested she tell her parents that she had either been raped or impregnated by someone else, because he didn't want to take responsibility, the Tribune reports.

A defense lawyer for Albert calls those statements improper hearsay and argued against them.

Albert has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer has argued in pretrial motions that it can't be proved that he was even aware of the pregnancy, and that therefore he had no motive to commit the crime, reports the paper.

Albert is currently free on $1 million bail.

It was Niles' sister, Heather Hunziker, who helped helped persuade police to take another look at the case in 2006, the paper reports.

At that time, with the help of DNA technology and new interviews, a Cook County grand jury indicted Albert on first-degree murder charges in 2008.