The case involving a 15-year-old girl went cold for 40 years until investigators compared crime scene DNA with DNA available in public genealogical databases and found a family match, the Edmonton Police Service said in announcing the charge on Tuesday. Police then obtained a sample of the man’s DNA and asked the RCMP’s National Forensic Task Force to confirm that it matched evidence from 42 years ago. Police believe he was living in Edmonton in 1981, but said he now lives in Kelvington, east of Saskatoon. He was arrested on October 27 and charged with rape and acts of gross indecency as defined in the 1981 Canadian Criminal Code. When asked how the survivor reacted to hearing the charges laid in her case, Detective Constable Kevin Harrison from the EPS Historical Crime Unit said: “In one word: happy. “I’m glad it wasn’t forgotten and that we were able to make an arrest in this case.” The accused was released by police and appeared in court in December in Edmonton.
RESEARCH USING GENEALOGY
In the early morning hours of July 9, 1981, the 15-year-old girl was grabbed, dragged and sexually assaulted by a man while walking home in a school field near 121st Avenue and 46th Street in northeast Edmonton. Her attacker ran away. She did not know him and the police were unable to identify him. In 2018, the file was reviewed by the historical crime team and submitted to the RCMP national laboratory in order to create a DNA profile. However, it did not match any other profile from a different crime scene or conviction at the bank. At that point—when his other options had been exhausted—Harrison says EPS turned to research genetic genealogy, as it has done more often recently. He would not say which genealogy service led investigators to the Saskatchewan man, but confirmed that only two allow law enforcement to search their databases: GEDMatch and FamilyTreeDNA. “[Investigators] they work from a suspect DNA profile, up the family tree, to a most recent common ancestor, and then back to a putative or possible suspect. Other investigative steps are then taken to ensure that this suspect is the right age, lives in the right area, matches the description,” the detective explained. “Ultimately, the key is that this is an investigative technique or tool that we are then required to go out and look for legitimate DNA from the suspect that has been profiled according to the RCMP lab and compared to the suspect’s profile to confirm a match ». Harrison did not describe how police obtained the Saskatchewan man’s DNA for RCMP analysis, but maintained the process was legal. “The police have various techniques for doing this. I’m not prepared to go into them today.” He added: “Sometimes [suspects] they are aware and sometimes not.’ Nor would Harrison say how close the family match was found by investigators. “This technology can reveal matches up to the fifth and sixth generations, so … when we look at those matches and we look at a family member who would have potentially uploaded their DNA, that person could be so distantly related to our suspect. they have no idea it’s in their family.”
“WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN”
This is the first time an Edmonton police investigation into publicly available genealogical data has resulted in criminal charges. “Our office and EPS are constantly researching new techniques and ways to explore evidence and try to come to a conclusion and identify suspects and make arrests,” Harrison promised. “I think it’s important to note that survivors of these types of attacks, or families of homicide victims, or survivors of sexual assault, are not forgotten.” As for the perpetrators, “I really think some of these people think they’ve gotten away with it,” Harrison said. “And they need to know that we haven’t forgotten them either.” Rape has not been a term in the Criminal Code of Canada since it was replaced in 1983 by the broader term “sexual assault”. The change was intended to modernize the code, in part by focusing on the violent rather than the sexual nature of an offence. clarifying that men or women could be victims of sexual assault; and clarifying that a victim’s spouse could be accused of sexual assault. With files from David Ewasuk of CTV News Edmonton
