DNA helps solve 1985 sex assault

DNA helps solve 1985 sex assault By MELISSA SÁNCHEZ

DALLAS - More than 20 years after being sexually assaulted, a Lewisville woman finally has justice.

Dallas cold case investigators began a program nearly a year ago that encouraged sexual assault victims from the 1970s and '80s to contact the department. The goal was to solve these cases using today's DNA technology.

In 1985, a stranger raped the woman, who was 13 at the time, at knifepoint in her home, police said. The Star-Telegram does not identify victims of sexual assault.

In May, the woman contacted police.

Last month, the department was told that the Combined DNA Index System detected a match between the evidence obtained during the woman's medical exam and convicted sex offender Kevin Glen Turner.

A police sergeant called to tell her the news.

"I was in disbelief," the woman said. "I thought there was no way. But they brought me his criminal history and a mug shot of him, and I knew without out a doubt he was the guy."

Turner, 37, is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for robbery, auto theft and a 1986 sexual assault. Because the statute of limitations has expired, Turner cannot be prosecuted for the 1985 case.

But his victim plans to write a protest letter to Texas prison officials.

It will be reviewed in Turner's next review hearing scheduled for May 2007.

The woman also plans to write her attacker a personal letter.

"I want him to know I am no longer his victim, but a survivor of this sexual assault," she said.