DNA Helps St. Louis Police Solve Rape Case Within 5 Days

(KSDK) - Just days after a St. Louis woman was abducted and raped, the St. Louis Police Department has apprehended a suspect, thanks to DNA and a police criminologist.

Police say on February 12, a 29-year-old woman was abducted at gunpoint near Watson Road and Fyler Avenue and forced to drive to a remote area of Hall Street, where she was raped.

Her assailant then allegedly forced her to drive him to Baden Avenue, where he fled. The victim was taken to a local hospital where evidence of the sexual assault was collected.

Within five days, DNA analyst Anne Kwiatkowski matched the DNA of convicted felon -- Donald R. Church, 30 -- with a sample taken from the victim.

To Kwiatkoski, it was a special moment.

"It was a complete stranger taking advantage and assaulting this poor woman and I got to help her and that's a real rewarding feeling."

To the eye, what looks like supermarket bar codes, are actually DNA profiles. The St. Louis police lab matched 332 of them to suspects last year -- up an astounding 300 percent over the year before.

A state law requiring felons to submit their DNA to a growing data base has helped.

"The numbers definitely don't lie. We've increased in solving unsolved cases for St. Louis," said St. Louis police DNA tech leader Mary Beth Karr.

"We use the DNA as an investigative tool. While it may be like a smoking gun, we still have to put the gun in someone's hands, said St. Louis police Lt. Col. Tim Reagan.

The St. Louis Police Department was the first police force in the United States to use fingerprints, that was back in 1904. Now police and prosecutors are using this new generation of science.

"It's like an enhanced version of fingerprints. It helps us solve crimes, find out who was at a scene. (It) helps us put together what happened at a scene based on scientific evidence," said St. Louis Asst. Circuit Attorney Ed Postawko.

Church was in custody for weapons offenses when he was charged with rape, kidnapping and robbery based on the DNA match.

Karr said the department is already on track to eclipse last year's number of DNA hits.