At 6am on March 19, 2008, a man accosted the barista of the Kind Grind Coffee Shop at the harbor as she was opening up for money business. Holding a knife to her throat, he led her to the kitchen, where he raped her. When he was done, he took her to a walk-in refrigerator, forced her inside and barricaded the door. Three years later, the case may have been solved, according to the Sentinel.
At 6am on March 19, 2008, a man accosted the barista of the Kind Grind Coffee Shop at the harbor as she was opening up for money business. Holding a knife to her throat, he led her to the kitchen, where he raped her. When he was done, he took her to a walk-in refrigerator, forced her inside and barricaded the door. Three years later, the case may have been solved.
Police were able to retrieve DNA from the case, but they came up with no matches on their database. Then they tried something different—something that has only been done a handful of times in California. Rather than identifying a match, they used the DNA to identify a family member. In November 2010, they found a relative—the suspect’s father. Though he was ruled out, they eventually began watching his son and were able to recover a DNA sample from him, using items found in his trash. On Tuesday, Elvis Garcia, 21, appeared in court and was charged with the assault three years earlier. He is currently being held on $1 million bail, pending his trial.
This is only the second time that familial DNA has led to an arrest. The first case was the arrest of Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, in Los Angeles County In July 2010. Franklin is believed to have been the Grim Sleeper, a serial killer responsible for at least 10 murders. In that case, DNA found at the crime scene was linked to Franklin’s son, who had been arrested on a felony weapons charge.
Commenting on the arrest of Garcia, Attorney General Kamala Harris said, “We’re going to start solving a lot more crimes through the use of science.” Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
