A 53-year-old man has been arrested and indicted for two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and three counts of aggravated sexual assault after Denton Police Department detectives linked his DNA to cold cases from the 1990s.
On Oct. 21, 1993, a now-retired Denton PD detective responded to Northlakes Park, where it was reported a 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by an unknown suspect while she was waiting at the park for other members of her cross-country team, according to a Denton PD news release on Tuesday. On Sept. 17, 1997, the same detective responded to the same park after a woman reported she was sexually assaulted by an unknown offender while she was taking a walk.
Evidence led the detective to believe both cases were related, but al suspect leads at the time were exhausted and did not turn up the suspect responsible, the news release said. In 1998, Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab reports indicated the DNA collected in both cases could have come from the same source. The profile was obtained and entered into the Combined DNA Index System and was continuously searched since its entry in 1999. There were no hits.
In 2023, a statewide DNA search was conducted and it was determined there was a reasonable probability the unknown serial sexual assault suspect was related to a specific known offender in the criminal justice system. Based on these results, a person of interest was identified in the 1993 and 1997 cold cases, according to police. Detectives discovered this person of interest, 53-year-old Marcus Deshaun Johnson, had been arrested for unrelated warrants in Denton in 1993. Officers further determined that the suspect description both survivors provided during their initial interviews was similar to Johnson’s appearance.
Denton PD detectives learned that Johnson was currently living in Las Vegas, and reached out to Las Vegas Metro PD and the FBI for assistance. With the assistance of these agencies, detectives were able to obtain a DNA sample from Johnson. This DNA was taken to a lab for analysis, where it was concluded that Johnson’s DNA profile could not be excluded as a contributor to the DNA samples collected during the 1993 and 1997 investigations, according to the Denton PD news release.
On June 29, 2023, Johnson was indicted on two counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child and three counts of Sexual Assault. Since his arrest, additional samples of his DNA have been collected in accordance with signed search warrants, according to police. Jail records show he was booked into Denton County Jail on July 25 and released on bail a day later.
In a statement, Denton PD credited the arrest to the hard work of “current and retired detectives, assistance from partner agencies, cooperation of both survivors, and advances in science and technology,” as well as “the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) grant, which provides funds to police departments seeking to solve sexual assault cold cases. Denton PD is one of five agencies in Texas that have applied for and received the SAKI grant.”
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