COLUMBUS, Ohio – Thanks to DNA testing, a Columbus man is behind bars, charged with raping a woman on the East Side at nearly 20 years ago.
Columbus SWAT officers arrested Leroy Davis, 47, (above) at his Wilson Avenue home Thursday after a test on material from the 1996 assault was analyzed and a match was returned via the Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, according to investigatoors with the Columbus Police Sexual Assault Unit.
On June 23, 1996, Davis allegedly grabbed a 34-year-old by the throat and forced her to an address in the 1200 block of Bryden Road where he held a box cutter to her throat and sexually assaulted her.
Detectives reviewing the incident as part of the Cold Case Initiative in July resubmitted the evidence to the Ohio Bureau of Investigation for analysis. After a DNA profile was developed and entered into the CODIS database, the suspect was identified as Leroy Davis.
Davis is in the Franklin County Jail on charges of rape and kidnapping.
BCI scientists have tested a total of 4,716 previously untested rape kits as a result of state Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Sexual Assault Kit Testing Initiative, now nearing the end of its second year. The DNA testing has led to 1,698 hits in the CODIS system and more than 200 people have been charged for crimes they allegedly committed years ago as a result of the initiative, DeWine said.