海角破解版

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor鈥檚 office plans to use open source genealogical databases to help identify 鈥渟tranger rapists鈥� 鈥� people who鈥檝e been indicted as John Does for sexual assault but haven鈥檛 been identified.

The prosecutor鈥檚 office indicts the DNA profile collected from a rape kit to ensure the statute of limitations doesn鈥檛 expire. 

There are more than 130 open rape cases in Cuyahoga County and prosecutors plan to start tackling them by trying to identify the assailants with help from DNA-based genealogy databases, said Special Investigations Chief Rick Bell.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to do the first five to 10 cases of the worst of the worst of those 鈥� the stranger serial rapists that we know connect to more than one rape kit 鈥� and we鈥檒l do that as the pilot project,鈥� Bell said.

DNA samples collected from John Does will be compared with DNA shared by users of ancestry websites, he explained.

鈥淚f you鈥檝e signed up through an open source platform, you agree that your DNA could be used by law enforcement through a search in order to determine whether or not there are people that are related to you that commit crimes,鈥� Bell said.

The genealogical searches will supplement information from the FBI鈥檚 Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

鈥淏ecause the cases are so old, the person who committed the rape鈥檚 DNA is not in the CODIS system,鈥� he explained. 鈥淲ith this searching ability, we鈥檒l be able to hopefully identify what family the stranger rapists are from and be able to continue the investigation.鈥�

In one case, the genealogical databases will be used for a reverse search.

Serial killer  Samuel Little confessed to three murders in the Cleveland area. Two have been solved, but law enforcement has not yet confirmed if remains found in 1983 in Willoughby Hills belong to a victim Little claims to remember from the late 1970s.

鈥淗e has a photographic memory of all of these events,鈥� Bell said. 鈥淗e paints and draws pictures of many of his victims and had a very good recollection of what she looked like.鈥�

A computer imaging program used the woman's remains to reconstruct her face.

鈥淏efore we showed him that picture of this 19-year-old African-American female, he had told us that she was 19 and he actually described what her face looked like and it certainly matched what we knew was the photograph,鈥� Bell said. 鈥淲e showed him the photograph and he said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 her. That鈥檚 her鈥�.鈥�

The county prosecutor鈥檚 office will use the genealogical databases to try to identify the woman and see if she has any living relatives, Bell said.

鈥淭hen we can go back and we can advise her family. Maybe there鈥檚 some nieces. Maybe there鈥檚 somebody that survived, and we鈥檒l be able to, as they say, bring some closure there,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut more importantly, we need to make sure that for law enforcement鈥檚 sake, we have the right body connected to the right murderer. And that鈥檚 our bottom line.鈥�

The next step will be for law enforcement 鈥� including the medical examiner and the prosecutor鈥檚 office 鈥� to go through old case files to determine if any more John Doe assailants need to be identified.

鈥淲e鈥檒l have to go back through our cases as well, and I鈥檝e instructed our former homicide detectives to do just that 鈥� to see whether or not we have any of that biology, that DNA, those profiles, that might be able to be solved through this technique,鈥� Bell said.

About 20 percent of rapes or sexual assaults reported in the United States are committed by strangers to the victim, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor鈥檚 office will hire a private company to conduct those investigations, which are expected to begin in spring 2020.

The genealogical searches will be paid for with $100,000 out of two grants totaling $3 million awarded to the prosecutor鈥檚 office, which leads the Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Task Force, by the Justice Department.