State DNA Database Helps Solve Cold Case

The case was part of the West Virginia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, which aims to reduce the number of sexual assault kits in law enforcement possession that remain unsubmitted for DNA testing.

A sexual assault evidence kit is logged in the biology lab at the Houston Forensic Science Center in Houston on Thursday, April 2, 2015. The new attention to sexual assault kits stems from a combination of factors: the persistence of advocacy groups, investigative media reports, the willingness of rape survivors to speak out and political support from statehouses up to the White House.

Officials believe they have closed a 31-year-old cold case thanks to new DNA technology. 

Gabrielle Mucciola, Monongalia County prosecuting attorney, this week announced the arrest of a suspect in a sexual assault case that has been unsolved for decades.

The case was part of the West Virginia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, which aims to reduce the number of sexual assault kits in law enforcement possession that remain unsubmitted for DNA testing.

The West Virginia State Police Forensics Laboratory made an association between DNA evidence from the 1993 assault to the suspect’s DNA, which had been entered into the state DNA database. 

According to the West Virginia Division of Justice and Community Services, more than 2,000 previously unsubmitted kits have been identified, inventoried and tested to date, resulting in more than 900 DNA profiles identified and 355 database hits.

Author: Chris Schulz

Chris is WVPB's North Central/Morgantown Reporter and covers the education beat. Chris spent two years as the digital media editor at The Dominion Post newspaper in Morgantown. Before coming to West Virginia, he worked in immigration advocacy and education in the Washington, D.C. region. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

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