An American man who committed indiscriminate sexual assault against a woman 20 years ago was caught with DNA left in a coffee cup.
According to Law & Crime, a US crime media outlet, on the 23rd (local time), Kurt Lilmar (51), a man living in Michigan, was indicted last week on charges of raping a woman in her teens and twenties 23 years ago. A plastic coffee cup played a big role in the arrest of the culprit in a case 23 years ago that could have remained unsolved.
According to the police report, on September 6, 1999, a 22-year-old woman was indiscriminately assaulted and raped at a restaurant located in a golf course in Michigan, USA. An unidentified man entered the restricted area and committed a brutal crime.
Nine months later, on July 27, 2000, a teenage woman met a man asking for directions on a jogging course at a golf course near Pennsylvania State University. This man said she was hurt and she asked to help herself. When the woman tried to leave her seat, the man threatened to put a knife to her throat, took her into the woods, assaulted her on the abdomen several times, and raped her.
The suspect left the scene, but DNA including bodily fluids remained. However, the criminal DNA database CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at the time, could not identify the suspect due to technical limitations.
In 2021, more than 20 years later, the police in Michigan and Pennsylvania, USA, entered into a technology agreement with DNA technology company ‘Parabon Nanolabs’ and began to use next-generation DNA technology to find suspects.
As a result of DNA analysis, the Police Joint Investigation Bureau narrowed down the potential suspects to three. All three were blood brothers.
The investigative authorities focused on Kurt Lilma, a man who lived near the golf course where the crime occurred 23 years ago, as the prime suspect among the three brothers and visited his house.
Police extracted DNA from a plastic coffee cup he was drinking at home and the analysis matched the suspect’s DNA.
Kurt Lilmar was later charged with first and second degree sex offenses in Michigan. In Pennsylvania, he will be charged with felony counts of rape, sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault.
The police authorities said, “Curt Lilma traveled around the country as an ‘ardent golfer’ and played golf.” They judged that there may be victims of similar sexual violence and asked the victims to report it.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.