Nameless DNA profile charged in 1999 rape

Prosecutors hope move will cancel out statute of limitations

By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian • Published May 06, 2008

Prosecutors usually have a suspect's name before someone is charged with a crime.

But for the first time in Thurston County, prosecutors have charged a genetic profile — an unknown person's DNA — with an unsolved rape of a woman in downtown Olympia in 1999.

The rape occurred while the woman was walking home alone after an argument with a boyfriend at a west Olympia bar early June 20, 1999. She was downtown on Fourth Avenue when she was approached by a man who accosted her, then dragged her behind a building and raped her, court papers state.

In September 2007, advances in DNA technology helped a forensic scientist at the State Police Crime Lab identify a DNA profile from semen that was left on the woman's skirt during the attack, Olympia Police Det. Russ Geis said.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Skinder said Monday that a DNA profile is a better identifier for an individual than a name, or even a fingerprint.

"(T)he probability of randomly selecting an unrelated individual with a DNA profile matching the profile set out above is approximately 1 in 4,950,000,000,000,000 (1 in 4.9 quadrillion)," read court records charging a "John Doe's" genetic profile with the crime.

Prosecutors have charged the person who matches the DNA profile with a single count of first-degree rape.

Skinder credited Geis and the Olympia Police Department with pursuing the investigation of the rape.

"It was brutal, and it's always bothered us," Geis said Monday. "She deserves justice."

The charges were filed before the 10-year statute of limitations on first-degree rape expires, keeping hope alive that the rapist can be convicted of the crime and jailed, Skinder said.

"To preserve the case, we had to take action within the statute of limitations," Skinder said.

A suspect may be arrested if a person whose DNA profile matches the "John Doe" charged in Thurston County is entered into a nationwide database of DNA profiles — the CODIS database.

When Olympia officers were dispatched to the rape in 1999, they discovered the victim in the 1600 block of Fourth Avenue "bleeding from her head and crying hysterically."