Wanted: Man known only by DNA

The police don't know his name. But they think they know what he did.

The alleged rapist left behind enough evidence seven years ago for investigators to learn the man's genetic profile.

Last week, Snohomish County prosecutors took the unusual step of filing rape charges against the unknown suspect, filing the case not under his name, but instead using his genetic code.

The Snohomish County Superior Court papers list the suspect as "Individual A." The documents say the man's real name is unknown but he is "identified by unique genetic sequence of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)."

Prosecutors said they filed the case the way they did to avoid problems with statute of limitations on the 1999 attack of a young woman along I-5.

Defense attorneys say the case raises concerns, in part because it makes anybody who may share the genetic profile a defendant in a criminal case.

The charging papers contain an arrest warrant for the man who matches the genetic profile, deputy prosecutor Ed Stemler said.

"We know a crime has been committed. We have evidence of who committed the crime and we want to do anything in our power to alert all police agencies who we're looking for," Stemler said. "The only way to do that was to put the suspect's DNA markers in the (charges) so that will be in the system."

Such charges against an unknown defendant are sometimes filed in cases where the statute of limitations is about to run out, and the only way to preserve the possibility of prosecution is to file charges against the DNA, lawyers said.

That was on the mind of prosecutors, said Craig Matheson, who heads the Snohomish County prosecutor's Special Assault Unit. In this case, there's a 10-year statute of limitations, the time in which the government is obliged to file a charge or it cannot proceed.

"We don't want the statute of limitations to run (out) on it," Matheson said. "We want something in the system so we don't lose track."

It's also possible that merely filing the charge with the genetic profile will someday lead to a match in state or federal DNA databases. People convicted of serious crimes are required to give a DNA sample for entry into the state database, Matheson said.

Although seldom done, Matheson said he twice before has filed charges in similar situations under a 2000 state law. The practice has been ongoing for several years in some other states, said Todd Gruenhagen, a Seattle defense attorney associated with the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers .

Gruenhagen said he's aware of at least one case in Wisconsin where a man was arrested as a result of a similar charge. Matheson said there have been no arrests in similar Snohomish County cases.

The practice raises some concerns among defense lawyers.

"It's an avoidance of the statute of limitations and it's just a little concerning," said Susan Gaer, assistant director for the Snohomish County Public Defender Association. The more time that passes after a crime date, the more difficult it is to prepare a defense, she said.

Her biggest concern is that the charging papers don't identify how likely it is that someone else has a very similar genetic profile.

"There could be an awful lot of people with similar genetic code," Gaer said. "What are you going to do, arrest them all?"

Defense attorney Mark Prothero of Kent said the emergence of DNA has done a lot of good, including leading to convictions and exoneration of the innocent.

"I'm a little concerned about the defendant being an unknown entity," Prothero said of this case. "Just a number; I don't know if we have a full grasp of the issues to start charging people by the numbers."

According to charging papers, the then 18-year-old woman had car problems along I-5 near Arlington in June 1999. Her cell phone battery went out. A man came up to her car and offered to let her use his phone.

Instead, he grabbed her and pulled her by the hair. She lost consciousness and woke up in tall grass next to a grove of trees by the freeway. Her jeans and shoes had been removed.

Police have been unable to locate the assailant, papers said.