DNA evidence links man to three sexual assaults over more than a decade

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A former California city employee has been arrested after he was linked to a string of sexual offences dating back to 2010.

Kabeh Cummings, 35, has been extradited to Sacramento following his arrest on 29 August in New York City.

Mr Cummings is facing more than 10 counts of rape, kidnapping and sodomy in connection with three sexual assault cases that had gone cold until last year.

Prosecutors said during a press conference on Tuesday that the first victim was strangled and raped before the suspect fled the scene with her purse. Just weeks later, in March 2010, a second victim was sexually assaulted in a parking lot while she was unconscious.

Then in September 2013, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office received reports from a third woman that said she had been raped by a man pointing a stun gun at her. Although DNA from the collected rape kits tied the same suspect to the two first crime scenes, it did not match anyone’s DNA on a national database.

Additional testing from material collected in the 2013 case allowed detectives to develop a specialized DNA profile that eventually led to the identification of a suspect and a link to the 2010 rapes, Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said.

In recent years, genetic genealogy has been increasingly used in cases where other leads have been exhausted. The technology creates family trees with the available DNA so law enforcement can make connections between potential suspects and their relatives.

According to ABC10, police surveilled Mr Cummings and took DNA samples from his trash that later matched the DNA from the three crime scenes.

“As the years went by, I kind of lost hope. I feel like justice is being served, I have my closure,” one of Mr Cummings’ alleged victims told the network. “I know who he is, I know he will be paying for [what he did.]”

Mr Cummings was employed by a city-funded afternoon school programme between 2008 and 2014.

He was booked into the Sacramento County Jail on Friday and his bond has been set at $3.5m.

If convicted on all charges, Mr Cummings faces 180 years in prison.

Authorities believe Mr Cummings may be linked to other sex crimes. Anyone with information is asked to call the case tip line at 916-808-1773.