For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Contact: Nazneen Ahmed
919-716-0060
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein congratulated law enforcement for their commitment to testing the backlog of sexual assault kits in local law enforcement custody and using DNA to solve cold cases.
“Three recent cases show that law enforcement officers are tireless in their pursuit of justice for victims and survivors of sexual assault,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “In communities across the state, we’re testing kits and breathing life into decades-old cold cases. I’m also grateful to our scientists at the State Crime Lab for using science to search for truth and to the North Carolina General Assembly for providing the funding to help clear this backlog. We owe victims and survivors of sexual assault our best efforts to deliver justice, hold perpetrators accountable, and make our communities safer.”
In recent days, law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in North Carolina have made arrests and convictions in several cold cases:
- The Fayetteville Police Department arrested a suspect in connection for a series of rape and kidnapping cases in 2007. The State Crime Lab compared DNA for the cases to the suspect to help law enforcement make an arrest.
- The Durham Police Department’s Cold Case Unit arrested a suspect in two sexual assaults that occurred in 1993. The kits were outsourced for testing by the State Crime Lab using funding from the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant and the North Carolina General Assembly. The State Crime Lab matched DNA from the older sexual assault kits to the suspect.
- A man in New Hanover County was convicted of first-degree rape and kidnapping in a 1996 case and sentenced to more than 48 years in prison. The State Crime Lab outsourced the kits for testing and did additional testing and analysis in the case. Crime Lab analysts also testified at the trial. The Wilmington Police Department made the arrests in the case and New Hanover District Attorney Ben David prosecuted the case.
###