News

Tucson Police to start processing sexual assault kits within a week
— Athena Kehoe, KGUN9, Sep 11, 2024

"Back in 2022, Tucson Police Department (TPD) received a grant from Sexual Assault Initiative Kits (SAKI) to complete previous unfinished sexual assault kits. Dallas Wilson with the TPD Detectives team explained the importance of this grant: "Now, instead of the victim going to the hospital, getting the kit, and then having a patrol officer take the kit to our evidence center and put in storage, and then wait for an investigator to potentially request for that kit to get tested… we’re just testing them all immediately.”

Man indicted on multiple child sex charges in New Orleans
— Christian Oliver, MSN.com, Aug 30, 2024

"A man has been indicted on several child sex charges after his case was brought before an Orleans Parish grand jury on Thursday, Aug. 29. Two years later, Broadmoor murder case remains unsolved According to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, the case against Marcus Leonard was formally presented by an attorney with the Orleans parish District Attorney’s Office Sexual Assault Kit Initiative."

44 years after woman murdered in suburban Seattle, DNA on cigarette leads to suspect in Arkansas
— Kerry Breen, CBS News, Aug 27, 2024

"New DNA recovered from a cigarette has helped police in Washington state make an arrest in a decades-old cold case, authorities said this week. DNA evidence was collected from the crime scene, CBS affiliate KTHV reported, but it wasn't until years later that the technology would advance enough to help link that evidence to possible suspects. In March 2022, Kent police began pursuing possible DNA matches and came back with 11 suspects, according to the station. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said on social media that his office's sexual assault kit initiative funded forensic genetic genealogy testing that ""narrowed the list of suspects."

Backlog of thousands of sexual assault kits processed in West Virginia under SAKI program
— Sam Kirk, Yahoo News, Aug 27, 2024

"The West Virginia State Police and Bureau of Justice Administration’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) have reached a major milestone in ensuring justice for sexual assault victims in the state. In 2015, the State Police’s Forensic Laboratory partnered with the SAKI along with other organizations with the mission of testing all eligible untested or unsubmitted sexual assault kits and enter qualifying DNA profiles into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database that houses DNA profiles for comparison purposes. Now, they have completed that goal, with more than 2,400 sexual assault kits (SAKs) being tested."

Utah police: DNA taken from Nicholas Alahverdian in January matches his DNA taken from 2008 rape
— Tom Mooney Providence Journal, Aug 27, 2024

"DNA from Rhode Island conman Nicholas Alahverdian taken in the Utah County Jail in January, following his extradition from Scotland, matches DNA collected in 2008 from a woman who said he raped her, a police officer testified Tuesday. Taking the stand at a hearing to determine if probable cause exists to prosecute Alahverdian, Orem Police Lt. Karalee Johnson became the first witness linking a recent sample of Alahverdian’s DNA to an alleged rape since he faked his death in 2020, sparking a sensational international story."

Crime committed 2 decades ago solved as Missouri’s sexual assault kit backlog shrinks
— Heidi Schmidt, KCTV5, Aug 26, 2024

"Missouri’s backlog of untested sexual assault kits is shrinking. The Missouri Attorney General’s office said it sent a shipment of untested sexual assault kits to a lab for testing in March 2024. It is the final shipment of backlogged kits the office decided to submit for possible prosecution. “This is a huge win out of our SAFE Kit Initiative. I am proud of my team of professionals dedicated to achieving real results for victims of sexual assault,” Attorney General Andrew Bailey said. “We will continue to partner with local law enforcement and prosecutors to obtain justice for victims.”

Serial rapist with cases dating back to 2005 receives life sentence
— Paul Wedding, WFAA, Aug 19, 2024

"A 52-year-old man found guilty of aggravated assault will spend the rest of his life in prison in the first Dallas County jury trial to use investigative genetic genealogy. The defendant, Christopher Michael Green, was charged in a 2005 cold case of raping a young mother at knifepoint. “We have been working this case with the Dallas Police Department since we started the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) almost a decade ago,” said lead prosecutor Leighton D’Antoni in a statement. “I remember long-time Dallas Police Department Sex Assaults Detective Todd Haecker telling me this was his ‘white whale.’ We exhausted every investigative tool without success until the DA’s Office and DPD began working with the FBI Dallas Violent Crimes Task Force, which finally cracked this case.”

Michigan to partner with U.S. Marshals to extradite suspects in sexual assault cold cases
— Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News, Aug 14, 2024

"The state of Michigan is partnering with the U.S. Marshals Service to help with the extradition of individuals identified and charged in sexual assault cold cases in recent years. Operation Survivor Justice, believed to be the first such partnership in the country, received about $1 million from the Michigan Legislature in the July budget to help pay for the extraditions, which would usually have to be funded through cash-strapped county prosecutor offices."

Michigan man pleads guilty to 2010 sexual assault cold case at Western Michigan University
— Joseph Buczek, CBS New Detroit, Aug 13, 2024

"A Livonia man has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a fellow student at Western Michigan University in January 2010. Cameron Alvarez, 34, was charged in 2022 for the sexual assault committed on the Kalamazoo campus. On Friday, Alvarez pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, the Michigan Attorney General's Office said. "

Defendant gets 20 years in cold case homicide
— Odessa American, Aug 9, 2024

"A 62-year-old man indicted four years ago in connection with a 1982 murder entered a plea agreement Friday and was sentenced to 20 years in the Texas Department of Corrections. According to the Odessa Police Department, Velma Nesset’s partially nude body was found in a drainage culvert along Tanglewood Lane on April 19, 1982 after she didn’t show up for work at what was then called the Permian Mall."