The new DNA analysis has solved the case of a girl raped and murdered in Alaska after 26 years

Sophie Sergie was 20 years old when she was found dead in the bath of a room at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with several stabbed and hit in the head. The autopsy later revealed that she had also been raped. The murder took place in 1993 and became a stalemate for investigators who attempted to resolve the case. After many years, police arrested a suspect this week, thanks to a new technique of genetic badysis.

During the reconstruction of the authorities, April 26, 1993, Sophie left the building of the university for a moment to smoke with a friend shortly after midnight. It was the last time that they saw her alive. The next day they knocked on his door but no one answered. The authorities forced their way into the room and found her lifeless.

At the beginning of the investigation, the authorities interviewed many students of the establishment. Among them was a young man of 18, called Steven Downs, who denied knowing the crime. The absence of witnesses and the lack of processing of the DNA samples, which was then in Alaska, caused the stalemate.

Last year, the California police managed to stop the "Golden State Killer"The serial killer who terrified California in the 1970s." A new direct DNA test proves the culpability of Joseph DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former 72-year-old police officer in Sacramento, who has been charged with at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of murders. robberies between 1976 and 1986.

Barbara Rae-Venter, biology doctor specializing in the research of family trees, is one of the people behind the DeAngelo hunt. His work not only led to the arrest of the murderer, but also demonstrated a powerful, though controversial, approach to identifying criminals through genetic genealogy.

Following the outcome of the Golden State badbadination case, the DNA samples obtained at the crime scene were sent to a company so that it develops a genetic genealogy test to find a family member of the murderer.

Thus the authorities were able to find a new index after 26 years. The results showed the name of a woman named Downs, aunt of the same teenager who lived in the building where the crime was committed. The experts then visited the suspect's family and took a sample of genetic material from his cheek, which coincided with the evidence collected in the victim's body.

This Sunday, Alaska police announced that they had arrested Steven Downs, in his hometown, Auburn, accused of murder and rape of Sophie. according to Portland Press Herald, the man, who is now 44 years old, recounted that he remembered the tumult of the case and even suggested that they investigate the soldiers who were in a near base .