DNA advances led to rape suspect

Victim wanting to review case prompted KBI to retest evidence in '90s crimes

A rape victim’s call to police nearly a decade after she was sexually assaulted set off a chain of events that led detectives to a suspected serial rapist who preyed on young women in Lawrence in the mid-1990s.

“I was contacted by one of the victims, which spurred looking into the cold cases,” Lawrence police Sgt. Dan Ward said. “She wanted to know if she could look at the file and see if anything would jog her memory.”

The woman, who was 21 at the time of the rape in September 1995, was attacked by a man who broke into her apartment in the 1000 block of Ohio Street while she slept.

At the time, police collected evidence, but scientists at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation were unable to generate a DNA profile for a possible suspect. Ward said the sample was too small.

“The sample for DNA that was needed in the ’90s was the size of a quarter,” he said. “Now, with the current technology, you only need about the size of a pinhead, so we’re able to generate profiles on a lot smaller piece of evidence. : I looked at the file and realized there was a possibility that some DNA evidence could be retested.”

KBI lab workers also were asked to retest DNA evidence from a 1994 rape that police thought might be connected. In that case, a 24-year-old woman was bound and repeatedly raped by a man who broke into her apartment in the 800 block of Maine.

This time, police had a match.

The new developments in the cases prompted a departmental review of all rape records from that time period.

Police came up with a DNA match on a third case – this one involving a 22-year-old KU student in May 1993. The woman was walking in the 1100 block of West 11th Street – on her way home from a downtown bar – when a man dragged her from a sidewalk into a wooded area and raped her.

“These cases are horrendous, and the three young women have dealt with a lot,” Ward said. “Fortunately they are all very strong. They went on with their lives and now they’re going to see justice.”

The telephone call that prompted the review of cases came in May 2004. The police investigation took time, and the KBI lab was backed up with other work, so results weren’t immediate.

In addition, nearly a year passed before police got the break they’d been hoping for: The FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, came up with a hit in January.

The Lawrence Police Department’s unknown suspect matched the DNA profile of a 38-year-old man living in Sacramento, Calif., who was entered into the national computer database after being placed on probation for a petty theft charge.

U.S. marshals found the man, who now faces 11 criminal charges in Douglas County stemming from those three rapes. Police said their investigation revealed that the suspect lived in Lawrence from 1992 to 1998.

The suspect remains in Douglas County Jail. A judge set his bond at $250,000, and he’s due back in court Wednesday.

Now, Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson has the task of trying three cases that date back more than 10 years.

“We’ve been in contact with all the victims,” Branson said. “They’re surprised and relieved. Of course, there’s a lot of anxiety that goes along with it. After 10 years you face the potential of having a trial out there.”

Ward believes the new evidence could bring some closure for the three victims, none of whom lives in Lawrence anymore.

“Obviously all three are very vested in this,” Ward said, “and they want to see justice done.”

The Journal-World generally does not name people accused of sex crimes unless there is a conviction.