Joe Jones and Joel Russell both went to Topeka High School, missing each other by a few years. When Jones was convicted of a 1986 rape, lawyers speculated Russell may have been responsible. “They could have been brothers,” is how one put it. Jones was released in 1992 after DNA evidence showed he wasn’t responsible. But until now, there was no proof connecting Russell with the case. A Journal-World investigation found that DNA was still stored in a refrigerator in California, prompting Topeka police to reopen the case. Russell was charged with the crime in April 2012.

photo by: Shaun Hittle

Joe Jones, seen here in a 1979 Topeka High School yearbook photo.

1984 Topeka High photo of Joel Russell.

photo by: Shawnee County Jail

Shawnee County Jail booking photo of Joe Jones from Aug. 26, 1985.

photo by: Kevin Anderson

Joe Jones looks back on his life and the choices he made that has changed him. Jones is trying to get his life together these days after spending nearly eight years in prison for a rape but was cleared through DNA evidence.

photo by: Kevin Anderson

Joe Jones was exonerated in 1992 of a 1985 Topeka rape after DNA showed he wasn't the assailant. Two decades after his release, a DNA match has identified a suspect, though police are withholding the name until the DNA testing is confirmed.

photo by: Kevin Anderson

Joe Jones sits in his small sparse apartment just blocks from the capital building in Topeka. Jones is trying to get his life together these days after spending nearly eight years in prison for a rape but was cleared through DNA evidence.

photo by: Kevin Anderson

Joe Jones scans the area along South Kansas Avenue in Topeka where he was walking one night in 1985 and was the start of a major change in in life. Jones is trying to get his life together these days after spending nearly eight years in prison for rape. He was the first person in the state of Kansas cleared through DNA evidence.

photo by: Kevin Anderson

Joe Jones received a settlement with the State after his release from prison. He bought this house in a quiet neighborhood in Topeka. But lacking any guidance on how to handle the $350,000 he got, Joe lost the house and eventually the money through a series of bad choices he said he made along the way.

photo by: Kevin Anderson

An alleyway leads to the area on the left where a woman was abducted and then raped at another location. Joe Jones was convicted for that rape and spent nearly eight years in prison for a rape but was cleared through DNA evidence.

photo by: Kevin Anderson

Joe Jones sits in his apartment just blocks from the capital building in Topeka. Jones is trying to get his life together after spending nearly eight years in prison for rape but then being cleared through DNA evidence.

photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Joel Russell, 46, already incarcerated for a sexual assualt, was identified earlier this year as a suspect in a 1985 rape and kidnapping of a Topeka woman. Joe Jones, a Topeka man, had been convicted of the crime, but was released when DNA evidence showed he was innocent.

photo by: Nick Krug

Topekan Joe Jones, who spent seven years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in a 1985 rape case, explained that learning that Joel L. Russell is the true suspect in the nearly 27-year-old case won't change the course of his life's events. He does believe that prosecuting Russell may help in his healing, however.

photo by: Nick Krug

Topeka chief of police, Ron Miller, discusses the events that led to the exoneration of Joe Jones and discovering that Joel L. Russell is the true suspect in the 1985 rape case.

photo by: Nick Krug

Outside the former location of the Bare Essentials Nightclub, 916 Kansas Ave., was where the victim in the 1985 rape case that sent Joe Jones to prison was initially abducted.