DNA tests awaited in latest rape case|[10/06/07]
Published 12:00 am Saturday, October 6, 2007
Vicksburg police are awaiting results of tests on DNA evidence to determine whether the Sept. 21 rape of an 86-year-old woman and the 2005 attack of a 91-year-old woman were committed by the same man, Lt. Bobby Stewart said Friday night. No arrests had been made.
So far, evidence from the two crimes has pointed to a suspect described only as a “black male.”
“There are similarities in the cases — both victims are elderly and lived alone and (the attacks) occurred in the same area,” Stewart said. “It’s most likely the same person. But, we definitively cannot say it is. We’re not absolutely sure.”
The first victim, who was attacked at her home in 2005, provided investigators with a composite sketch of her attacker. She also described him as young, black and wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans. The victim, who spent a stint in the hospital recovering from the attack, has since died.
The second victim, who was attacked in her home in the same area off Halls Ferry Road just north of Waterways Experiment Station, was unable to give police a description of her assailant, other than that he was a black male, Stewart said.
Trace evidence, however, was collected from the scene and sent to the Mississippi Crime Lab in Jackson for forensic testing. Stewart said police put a rush on the evidence after the latest attack. Once those test results are returned, police will compare them with DNA evidence collected after the 2005 attack.
“When we get the results back, it will be a great help on whether we can tie the two together,” he said.
Delores Lewis, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, of which the Crime Lab is a division, said it’s not possible to determine a time line on specific cases, but the wait has shortened in most instances.
“Each case is different,” she said. “With increases in employees, we’ve seen a shorter time line. Back logs are not a problem like they once were” a year ago.
She was not specific on how much shorter the turnaround on tests has become since an increase in personnel in the state office.
After test results are in, Stewart said, the next step in the investigation will be for police to go door to door in the neighborhood where the attacks occurred.
“We want people to note any problems — suspicious vehicles, strangers in the area,” he said. “We plan to do door-to-door interviews with all the residents.”
The September rape victim was treated and released from River Region Medical Center after her attack and returned about a day later after suffering a heart attack. Stewart said she has since been released from the hospital and is staying with family members.
Six days after the most recent attack, police arrested 20-year-old Quinton Williams, who was charged Monday with seven robbery-related felonies in the same area. Although Williams was not charged with sexual attacks, his arrest was part of a beefed-up pursuit to solve violent crime cases in the area, police have said.