Testing Rape Kits Stops Serial RAPISTS

Eliza Fletcher was abducted while jogging on September 2, 2022. Her body was found three days later. DNA found in Fletcher’s case was matched to a rape kit collected on September 21, 2021, which was not uploaded into the DNA database until the same day Fletcher was found. Alicia Franklin, who was raped by the same offender a year earlier while four months pregnant, said she was not given updates about her case for months, despite immediately having a rape kit collected and reporting the crime to the police. Cleotha Abston, the offender in both cases, had his DNA in the system already when Alicia reported the crime. He is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in connection with the death of Eliza Fletcher.

Darin Lamont Bolar had two child rape convictions from 1993. He is linked to a string of violent and sexually-aggressive crimes involving both child and adult victims, domestic violence, second degree robbery, third degree theft, and fourth degree assault and obstructing a police officer. A rape kit taken in 2007 from a 14-year-old survivor was not tested until 2017 when it matched Bolar’s DNA from earlier sexual assault crimes. He was convicted in 2014 for domestic violence assault and was charged with sexual assault for the 2007 rape case.

In 1984, Ruben Carroll Slade raped two women over the span of three weeks. Both women submitted to rape kits, but their kits went untested for 30 years. In 2014, when the kits were finally tested, DNA found in the rape kits matched Slade’s profile which was already in the database for another crime. On February 5th 2018, Slade pleaded guilty to the crimes, and later that year was sentenced to serve two concurrent life terms for two counts of rape. Like many serial rapists, he also has prior convictions for robbery, five counts of burglary, three counts of grand larceny, shoplifting and probation violation.

Former Lake County probation officer Nathan Ford has been linked to at least 15 rapes since the early 1990s. Ford was first convicted of raping seven women and one child in 2006. In 2015, newly analyzed DNA evidence from untested rape kits connected Ford to an additional seven rapes. Ford is serving 138 years in prison for his 2006 convictions. Since the launch of the Ohio Sexual Assault Kit Testing Initiative, Ford has been linked to 14 additional assaults.

On 02/19/2003, DeShawn Starks sexually assaulted a woman at gunpoint in Detroit; the rape kit was collected. The same year, Starks went on to abduct at gunpoint and sexually assault two teen females — a 13-year-old and 14-year-old — and rape and rob another woman. On 09/23/2003 Starks broke into the home of a female acquaintance, threatened her at gunpoint, and carjacked her. He was sentenced to 3-20 years in prison for events involving the acquaintance.

The rape kits from the three sexual assault cases were tested between 2003 and 2005. Starks was identified as the suspect in the cases involving one of the teens and the woman who was also robbed in 2003. The rape kit of the victim in the 02/19/2003 assault wasn’t tested until 2012, and Starks was identified as the suspect in the case involving her on 08/23/2012. Sparks is currently serving a sentence of 45-90 years in prison, on a total of three separate felony convictions. Had the first kit been tested quickly, three sexual assaults and another violent crime could have been prevented.