DNA from a decades-old rape kit linked a Georgia man to the deadly stabbings of a woman and her brother in their suburban Atlanta apartment in 1990, officials said on Wednesday.
Kenneth Perry, 55, has been charged with multiple charges of malice murder, aggravated assault, and other felonies in the deaths of Pamela Sumpter, 43, and John Sumpter, 46, according to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
Perry was also charged with raping Pamela Sumpter, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Perry was detained this month and indicted on Tuesday, according to court records.
He is suspected of assaulting the siblings on July 15, 1990, at their home in Stone Mountain, about 17 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, after John Sumpter brought the man to their apartment, according to the release.
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According to a news statement from the District Attorney, Pamela Sumpter survived the attack and was hospitalized. According to the statement, she characterized Perry in detail during an interview with investigators, describing him as a brother’s acquaintance about whom she knew little. During her hospitalization, medical personnel gathered a rape kit including the attacker’s DNA, according to the prosecutor’s office. Pamela Sumpter died from her injuries on August 5, 1990, and the case fell cold.
This year, a kit sample uploaded to a national database matched DNA from an unprosecuted sexual assault in Michigan in 1992, according to the prosecutor’s office. The victim in that case recognized the suspect as Perry, her ex-boyfriend.
It remained unclear why the case was not prosecuted. A district attorney representative forwarded NBC News to the prosecutor’s office in Wayne County, Michigan, which did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
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After a genetic genealogy business traced DNA from Pamela Sumpter’s rape kit to a “family network that could include” Perry, investigators arrested him and directly compared his DNA to the kit material, according to the prosecutor’s office as per NBCNEWS.
Authorities discovered that the samples matched on June 20, according to a news release.
Perry is currently being held without bond at the DeKalb County Jail, according to facility records.
In a motion filed Monday, Perry’s lawyer stated that he poses no major threat or risk of obstructing justice.
The lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.