News

Convicted sex offender indicted for 2005 Cold Case
— deltadiscovery.com, May 2, 2023

"Today (April 19, 2023) an Anchorage grand jury indicted 55-year-old Guy Allan Nelson is charged with sexually assaulting a 34-year-old woman in a vehicle off the Glenn Highway in July 2005. Investigative efforts to identify a suspect in 2005 were unsuccessful and the case went cold. In 2022, the sexual assault kit collected in the case was tested as part of the Capital Project, a State-funded initiative to test and analyze all untested sexual assault kits collected by 47 police departments statewide. The kit results identified a potential suspect through a DNA match."

Victims detail how Dallas man linked to 10 sexual assaults trapped them, records show
— The Dallas Morning News, Apr 27, 2023

"Court documents in five cases show accounts from women who told police earlier this year how a man assaulted them in Dallas and forced them to perform sexual acts. Police believe the man is 50-year-old Christopher Michael Green. “A lot of these cases are cold because these suspects either don’t have criminal records or were never on anybody’s trail,” said D’Antoni, who is the chief of the sexual assault kit initiative team in the district attorney’s office."

Kalamazoo Sexual Assault Initiative Brings Man to Trial for 2005 Rape
— Michigan Department of Attorney General, Apr 14, 2023

“The importance of the work being done by the Kalamazoo SAKI team and their counterparts throughout Michigan cannot be overstated,” said Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting. “Being able to provide justice that is long overdue for victims of sexual assault is extraordinarily important. Equally important is the fact that we know that prosecuting these cases often results in preventing future assaults on others by these men.”

New Orleans City Council approves to clear sexual assault kit backlog
— WDSU6, Apr 7, 2023

"New Orleans City Council has unanimously approved an agreement that will clear the state's sexual assault kit backlog within the next two years. The Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (CEA) is the result of District B Councilmember Lesli Harris’ push to include $3 million in the annual budget, specifically to eliminate the backlog of kits and other unprocessed DNA evidence from New Orleans crimes."

Teen was sexually assaulted 28 years ago in Alaska, officials say. DNA leads to arrest
— The Bharat Express News, Apr 7, 2023

"Nearly three decades after a 17-year-old girl was sexually assaulted behind a restaurant, a man has been charged and arrested, Alaska officials said. Ronald Wade Fischer, 51, was charged March 30 with first-degree sexual assault, the state attorney general’s office said in a press release shared April 6 by the Anchorage Police Department. Officials said the sexual assault kit from the case was not tested until 2020 through a “state-funded initiative”."

Akron Police arrest suspected serial rapist
— News 5 Cleveland, Apr 4, 2023

"New Orleans City Council has unanimously approved an agreement that will clear the state's sexual assault kit backlog within the next two years. The Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (CEA) is the result of District B Councilmember Lesli Harris’ push to include $3 million in the annual budget, specifically to eliminate the backlog of kits and other unprocessed DNA evidence from New Orleans crimes."

Man convicted of rape in 1st trial from Minneapolis Sexual Assault Kit Initiative
— KSTP, Apr 3, 2023

"A 2020 plan to test previously untested sexual assault kits has led to its first conviction. Friday afternoon, a Hennepin County jury found 49-year-old James Andrew Works guilty of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of kidnapping. “Victims deserve justice and our community needs to know that we will not let those who commit these crimes go without accountability,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “We are prioritizing this work and I am grateful for the partnership and work of MPD and BCA, along with our staff who worked on this case. I hope the victims in this case feel some sense of relief after these verdicts.”"

North Carolina man pleads guilty to raping woman 31 years ago, sentenced to decades in prison
— Fox News, Mar 28, 2023

"A North Carolina man who pleaded guilty on Monday to raping a woman in Fayetteville 31 years ago was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The department received funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s FY2015 National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Grant and reopened the case in 2015. Police arrested Roy Junior Proctor in November 2020 and charged him with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and felonious larceny. Proctor pleaded guilty on Monday, according to the Fayetteville Police Department, and received two 40-year sentences that will run concurrently for second-degree rape, second-degree sex offense, second-degree kidnapping, common law robbery and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill."

Former WMU student sentenced to prison in 10-year-old rape cases after involvement by Kalamazoo County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative
— WTVB, Mar 27, 2023

"A former Western Michigan University student has been sentenced to 6-15 years in prison for the sexual assaults of a fellow WMU student and a 16-year-old Augusta girl 10 years ago. The cases came to light as part of the Kalamazoo County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), a partnership between the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office, and the YWCA of Kalamazoo. The Kalamazoo SAKI team consists of a prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office, two deputized investigators employed by the Kalamazoo Prosecutor’s Office, and a victim advocate/therapist employed by the YWCA."

Raleigh police, with DNA from old sexual assault kit, make arrest in 1990 rape case
— Yahoo.com, Mar 18, 2023

"Raleigh Police arrested a man Friday in 32-year-old rape case using DNA analysis. Police announced the arrest Saturday, saying they had charged Deandre Marcel Smith, 51, with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping. Police said Smith was identified through evidence obtained recently as part of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) and the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS)."