DNA from 1990 rape kit links suspect to double murder in Georgia, leads to arrest decades later
DNA from a decades-old rape kit linked a Georgia man to the fatal stabbings of a woman and her brother in their suburban Atlanta apartment in 1990, officials said Wednesday.
Kenneth Perry, 55, was charged with multiple counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and other crimes in the deaths of Pamela Sumpter, 43, and John Sumpter, 46, the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office said.
Perry was also charged with raping Pamela Sumpter, the prosecutor’s office said.
Pamela and John Sumpter.Sherry Boston DeKalb County District Attorney via Facebook
Perry was arrested this month and indicted Tuesday, court records show.
He's accused of attacking the siblings at their home on July 15, 1990, in Stone Mountain, roughly 17 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, after John Sumpter brought the man to their apartment, according to the release.
Pamela Sumpter survived the attack and was hospitalized, the DA said in a news release. In an interview with authorities, she provided a detailed description of Perry and described him as an acquaintance of her brother's whom she knew little about, according to the release.
While hospitalized, medical officials collected a rape kit with the attacker's DNA, the prosecutor's office said. Pamela Sumpter died of her injuries Aug. 5, 1990, and the case went cold.
Earlier this year, a sample from the kit that was uploaded to a national database matched DNA from an unprosecuted sexual assault in Michigan in 1992, the prosecutor's office said. The victim in that case identified the suspect as Perry, her ex-boyfriend.
It wasn't clear why the case was not prosecuted. A spokesperson for the district attorney referred NBC News to the prosecutor's office in Wayne County, Michigan, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After a genetic genealogy firm linked DNA from Pamela Sumpter's rape kit to a "family network that could include" Perry, authorities arrested him and did a direct comparison between his DNA and the material collected from the kit, the prosecutor's office said.
On June 20, authorities learned the samples matched, the news release says.
Perry is being held without bond at the DeKalb County Jail, facility records show.
In a motion filed Monday asking that a reasonable bond be set for possible pretrial release, a lawyer for Perry said he poses no significant threat or risk of obstructing justice.
The lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Tim Stelloh
Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.