AUBURN — A Manchester man is under arrest, accused of the execution-style killing of George Jodoin in his bed in his Auburn farmhouse more than a decade ago.

Arthur Collins, 43, of 113 Conant St., was a handyman and buddy of Jodoin's, authorities said. Collins is charged with alternative counts of second-degree murder in the Dec. 26, 2001, death of the Manchester pawn shop owner. The charges are for knowingly and/or recklessly causing the death of Jodoin, 50, of Auburn, by shooting him multiple times in the head and neck with a firearm at his farmhouse at 718 Chester Road.

The case remained unsolved for 10 years and five months until Auburn police officer Bill Barry teamed up with Detective Robert Freitas of the state Attorney General's Cold Case Unit last year.

Wednesday was an emotional day for Robert Jodoin of Hooksett, Jodoin's younger brother, who said a day never went by he did not think of his brother or try to figure out who killed him. Jodoin, spokesman for the family who posted a $50,000 cash reward for information leading to the killer's arrest, always maintained the murderer was someone his brother knew and was somehow connected to the Mr. I Buy and Sell Everything pawn shop Jodoin co-owned in Manchester.

Robert Jodoin said he never met Collins but the man frequently pawned items at the shop and was a handyman who did work for his brother at his Auburn home, the same farmhouse where Jodoin and his siblings grew up.

He credits Auburn police chief Ed Picard, Barry and Freitas for solving the case and finally getting justice for his brother.

But most of the credit, he said, should go to Barry, who for nearly 26 years worked for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department, 17 of them chasing down fugitives. Barry, who went to work for Auburn police a week after he retired from the sheriff's department last May, received a national award for tracking down a man who was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for murdering a child.

Jodoin said when he learned Barry was working for Auburn police, he called up Picard and asked him to let him investigate his brother's murder. Picard got the OK from the police commission, he said.

Picard said once he hired Barry “after his brilliant career at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department” as a part-time officer he knew, after seeing him in uniform, that putting him in a patrol car was just not going to cut it. Picard laughs at the memory.

Barry, he said, was eager to get into the Jodoin homicide files and Picard was more than willing to let him do it. He said Barry developed substantial leads and, once that happened, Picard contacted the Cold Case Unit, specifically requesting Freitas, who was a Manchester police detective when Jodoin was killed.

“Bill is like a pit bull,” Picard said. “You pair Barry and Freitas and you have a pair that will beat a full house. They accomplished in 10 months what hadn't been done in 10 years.”

While relieved someone is finally under arrest, Jodoin remains angry that state police didn't solve his brother's murder 10 years ago. The same information that was available then is what the new investigators used to make the arrest.

“Without Bill Barry on this case, it would never have been solved and what really riles me and my family is state police had the same information for 10 years and five months and they did nothing with it,” said Jodoin. “The state police who worked on this case should be fired, that's my opinion. They should all take lessons from Bill Barry on how to do good police work and follow up on leads and double check things.”

And, according to Jodoin, state police focused on two suspects; neither one was Collins, he said.

Frustrated that nothing was being done to solve the killing, Jodoin even hired his own investigator, a retired state police officer, to look into the case. He took the investigator to the home of the man he considered the prime suspect — Arthur Collins. Jodoin said he told the private detective to be more aggressive in interrogating Collins and the detective quit. Jodoin joked that the detective fired him as a client. "He didn't have the backbone," Jodoin said, laughing.

Barry declined to comment on the case, referring all questions to Picard.

Jeffery A. Strelzin, senior assistant attorney general, said he couldn't provide more details Wednesday night. He said Collins was not arrested at home, but declined to say where he was arrested. He also declined to say what led investigators to Collins, but said law enforcement officials were pleased to bring closure to the decade-old case.

“We're most pleased for the victim's family,” he said.

Jodoin was found dead in his bed by Glenn Baroody, his business partner in the pawn shop, on the morning of Dec. 26, 2001.

Three file cabinets at the Cold Case Unit in Concord are filled with photos, videos, documents, reports and polygraph charts, as testimony to the doggedness of investigators.

But Picard said over the years, when he asked the case be reactivated, he was turned down. The Attorney General's office, he said, cited lack of funding and other priority cases.

Jodoin said he and family members sat down with members of the Cold Case Unit in a meeting arranged by former Attorney General Steve Merrill in November 2010, pushing for them to look again at the case. That didn't happen, he said, until after Barry was hired by Auburn police.

It was tough on Jodoin and his family because George Jodoin was revered by family members, particularly his many nieces and nephews. He wasn't afraid to try anything, his brother said, and the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Auburn resident became a world-class sailor, a pilot, a deep-sea diver, and gentleman farmer living at the family homestead where he and his siblings were raised, as well as a dancer, pianist, beekeeper, real estate investor and pawn shop owner.

He lived like a millionaire, wearing custom-made clothes and traveling worldwide, but never saved a dime, according to his brother. And while his family had nothing but admiration for him, others saw him as a shady pawn shop owner and real estate investor, which widened the pool of suspects.

“They had a lot of suspects about two miles long and going back 20 years,” said Picard. “Unfortunately, investigators at the time had tunnel vision and concentrated on one person in particular and I think because of that some stones went unturned.”

Early on in the investigation and until Collins' arrest, police had focused on three men, whom they never identified publicly, who were at Jodoin's house that day. Collins reportedly was doing some work for Jodoin at his home, while the others were friends who stopped by for some target shooting and a few drinks.

It may have taken more than a decade but Picard said with Collins' arrest, “We certainly believe justice to be served.”

Collins is to be arraigned Thursday at 10 a.m. in Candia District Court.