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Alleged Serial Rapist Caught With Same DNA Technique That ID'd Golden State Killer Suspect
Police believe Darold Bowden is the man behind a string of rapes a decade ago attributed to the “Ramsey Street Rapist.”
The same DNA technique used to arrest the Golden State Killer suspect earlier this year has just been used to crack another cold case.
Darold Wayne Bowden, 43, was arrested and charged for six cold case rapes that occurred from 2006 to 2008 in Fayetteville, North Carolina according to the Fayetteville Police Department who announced the breakthrough on Wednesday. The six rapes occurred at six different apartment complexes in the area. At the time he was dubbed the “Ramsey Street Rapist.”
Bowden was arrested at his home and has now been charged with first-degree forcible rape, first-degree forcible sex offense, first-degree statutory rape, indecent liberties with a child and first-degree kidnapping.
Police said they caught Bowden after using Parabon Nanolabs’ Snapshot Genetic Genealogy testing, the very same type of testing used to identify Golden State Killer suspect Joseph DeAngelo, who was arrested back in April and is expected to be officially arraigned for 13 murders and 18 rapes on Thursday.
Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia DNA engineering company, works with multiple police agencies to break cold cases. It uploads DNA data from crime scenes to the free genealogy site GEDmatch, Parabon president and CEO Steve Armentrout told Oxygen.com earlier this year. Parabon calls this process "genetic genealogy."
The new advance in technology, and Parabon specifically, has been credited with making arrests in multiple high profile cold cases over the past few months. It has led to the arrests in the unsolved 1974 murder of 19-year-old Arlis Perry in California, the 1986 killing of 12-year-old Michella Welch in Washington state and the 1992 killing of 25-year-old teacher Christy Mirack in Pennsylvania, to name a few. There is also hope that it could lead to an arrest or identification in the Zodiac Killer case.
Bowden is being held on a whopping $18,800,000 secured bond, according to police. Photos of his arrest appear to show a swastika tattoo on the suspect’s chest and neck but police have not commented on that. Police have posted several mugshots of Bowden from the time he is accused of attacking women, and even earlier, in hopes that possible additional victims will step forward.
Police said in a Wednesday press conference announcing Bowden’s arrest that this is just the beginning and that there are more cold case breakthroughs to come.
[Photo: Fayetteville Police Department]
