DNA advances help Durham police make arrests in 15 sexual assault cold cases

Advances in DNA testing and an effort to tackle a backlog of sexual assault kits resulted in the arrests of 11 people in 15 sexual assault cold cases in Durham — including one case dating back to 1984, Durham police said Tuesday.

The Durham Police Department tested sexual assault kits and matched DNA samples from the kits with a national DNA database to identify suspects. The arrests were announced Tuesday in an online press conference held over Zoom.

“DNA is a powerful tool,” North Carolina Attorney General Stein said during the press conference. “It can tie a potentially dangerous suspect to a crime or it can exonerate the innocent.”

In 2017, the Attorney General’s Office found that the state’s law enforcement agencies had roughly 15,000 untested sexual assault kits, Stein said.

By January this year, that number had been reduced to 10,000 to 12,000 untested kits statewide.

In Durham, there were roughly 1,400 untested sexual assault kits in Durham, The News & Observer reported in January.

The charges were filed by the Durham Police Department’s Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit, which is funded through a $1 million National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant.

The grant funds two cold case sexual assault investigators, one victim and witness assistant and one assistant district attorney for three years, according to a news release from the Durham Police Department.

“Several offenders who have committed some of the most egregious crimes for the past decade are now behind bars, thanks to the hard work and the dedication of our cold case sexual assault unit,” said Durham Police Chief C. J. Davis.

Linked to several cases

The arrests include people accused of multiple sexual assaults. Here are some of those arrests.

One of the suspects, Michael Brooks Jr., 47, has been linked with eight Durham Police Department cases and one Durham County Sheriff’s Office case, said Lt. Stephen Vaughan with Durham police in the press conference. Brooks was charged and arrested in connection with three cases. Further charges are pending. He is in Durham County Jail on $2.25 million bail.

Michael McNeil, 60, has been charged in connection with three cases — in 1996, 1998 and 2003. He was indicted on three counts of first-degree rape and four counts of first-degree sexual offense, according to a release from the Durham Police Department. He is being held in jail on $15,000 bail.

Vincent Sowell, 27, was indicted in September for second-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping in connection with a 2007 case. He is being held in the Alamance County Jail, where he has been since 2018 after being charged with murder in Burlington, the release stated.

The oldest case dates back to 1984. Robert Burnette, 58, of Carrboro was indicted in September and is accused of second-degree rape. He was arrested in October and released from jail after posting bail.

Advocates from the Durham Crisis Response Center, an agency that works with domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, helped speak to survivors throughout the investigations.

Helping survivors

Stein said the backlog of untested sexual assault kits is a result of how law enforcement approached sexual assault cases in the past.

“In law enforcement, there wasn’t as much sensitivity to the crime victim,” said Stein, who is seeking re-election.

But he believes things have changed in recent years.

“I think there’s greater scientific knowledge about the impact of trauma, there is more understanding about victims’ rights,” he said.

Technological advancements also have made testing the sexual assault kits easier, Stein said. The technology used to obtain DNA from a sample is much better, he said, and the database in which those DNA samples are compared is much bigger than it used to be.

“I hope this gives survivors in our community hope and confidence that they will see accountability and justice,” Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry said during the press conference. “We now have the resources and demonstrated dedication to prosecute these cases.”

This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 5:18 PM.