POLICE REPORT: DNA test finds suspect in cold case

Thanks to advances in DNA identification techniques, police have arrested a Mesquite man in the sexual assault of a 72-year-old Rosebud woman, 13 years after the crime was committed.

Delvin Huckaby, 44, remained in the Falls County Jail late Monday in lieu of $250,000 bond after he was arrested by a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force in Dallas earlier this month.

Huckaby is charged with aggravated sexual assault stemming from a 1994 case in Rosebud, said Sgt. Matt Cawthon of the Texas Rangers.

In January of that year, the woman, who lived alone, was awakened by a knock on her door. When she opened the door, she was attacked by a man who police said was armed, and he raped her in her bedroom, Cawthon said.

Rosebud police initially investigated the case, and two days later Cawthon showed up to assist.

“We interviewed lots of people trying to develop suspects, but despite having a lot of tips, nothing ever fit,” he said.

Cawthon said Huckaby was never a suspect during the original investigation.

Though the case grew cold, investigators kept the evidence, including the victim’s bedding, in the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab in Austin.

Thirteen years later, with developments in DNA identification technology, investigators compared a sample with a national DNA database, and it matched with Huckaby’s DNA, Cawthon said. Since then, that match has been triple-checked for accuracy, including a recent DNA test done on Huckaby.

Unfortunately, the woman died a few years after the assault, Cawthon said.

“We’re not going to quit just because our victim is gone,” he said.