An anonymous donor is offering $5,000 for information in an unsolved double homicide that happened on Christmas Eve 45 years ago.

On Christmas Eve 1968, Demetra and Nick Jeatran were found beaten in their home near Drew Street in Clearwater during what police said is an apparent burglary.

Demetra Jeatran, 74, died that day in the couple's house. Nick, 82, died three days later at Morton Plant Hospital. Their deaths are the city's oldest unsolved homicides.

A neighbor found the couple’s bodies and police said they believe it started as a robbery.

Investigators followed hundreds of other leads. They lifted fingerprints and collected a large amount of blood from the crime scene. They key point, though, is that police didn’t have a single witness.

Today, nearly five decades later, police admit time is not on their side although advances in technology could help them, especially when it comes to DNA. They hope that someone who has been holding on to this secret for years will now finally come forward.

“Somebody knows something and we’re hoping that as time goes by, they’ll be more willing to come forward and bring some closure to the family that needs it,” said Det. William Hodgson of the Clearwater Police Cold Case Unit.

Police said that recently an anonymous donor stepped forward with $5,000 for any information that leads to an arrest in the case. That, along with $1,000 offered by Crime Stoppers, brings the total reward to $6,000.

Officials said they hope the new reward money will lead someone who knows something about the unsolved homicides to come forward with information.

Earlier this year, an arrest was made in another cold case in Clearwater. In that case, Tisen Washington was arrested and charged with the murder of 51-year-old cab driver Jack LaGrand, who was shot and killed in 2008.

Bay News 9 spoke with the couple’s granddaughter over the phone who said that even though she is skeptical after all these years, she hopes the killer gets caught.

Clearwater Police are working a total of 26 murder cases that have gone cold.