DNA ties Valley man to 3 rapes since 1999

By SHEILA TOOMEY

DNA has linked a Palmer man to a series of rapes in downtown Anchorage in which the assailant offered rides to women walking home alone at night from bars, then attacked them, according to charges filed Thursday in Anchorage District Court.

Colby James Griffeth, 52, was arrested Thursday morning at the Valley moving company where he works. He is accused of three rapes and one attempted rape, all involving different women and spanning four years.

Anchorage Police Detective Ken McCoy credited DNA technology, the state DNA database and the national CODIS system for tying the three cases together and ultimately identifying Griffeth as the man who left bits of himself at three of the crimes.

The charges detail one 1999 rape and two from 2003. McCoy said the Special Victims Unit is reviewing other unsolved cases and expects to tie Griffeth to additional assaults. They are particularly interested in rapes that happened on Friday and Saturday nights, McCoy said.

Anchorage police have also contacted police in Hawaii, where Griffeth lived for several years, to see if they have any unsolved rapes resembling those charged here, he said.

In an interview with police last month, Griffeth denied raping anyone, denied having sex with any of the women and told police none of his DNA would be found, according to an affidavit McCoy filed in court to support arrest and search warrants.

Griffeth has no criminal record in Alaska, according to an online database of state court cases.

Griffeth's wife declined to comment Thursday on her husband's arrest. His son Clint Griffeth, 27, said outside the family's apartment in Palmer that his father is "the best person I knew."

"It's a complete devastation to the entire family," he said. "We had no clue."

McCoy said he got involved in the investigation about a year ago when he was assigned to a July 5, 2003, rape reported by a 32-year-old woman identified as B.P. She told McCoy she had been drinking and dancing at the Avenue Bar when a man who called himself James bought her a beer.

B.P. said she left the bar alone before closing time and was walking on Fourth Avenue toward her Ingra Street home when "James" pulled alongside in a blue pickup and offered her a lift.

Instead of taking her home, the affidavit says, "James" drove to Ship Creek and began pulling off her clothes. B.P. said she fought, kicking him in the chest, but he raped her once, then dragged her out of the truck by her hair, pulled a knife, and threatened to kill her if she resisted further. He then raped her again, the affidavit says.

The man drove away, leaving her alone and naked. She began walking and ran into a friend, who gave her a shirt to cover herself and took her home, where she called police.

Semen was recovered from B.P. and sent to the state crime lab for profiling.

Because of the huge volume of DNA analyses now being requested from the lab, obtaining a profile from the sample and submitting it to the state data bank took a long time, lab director Chris Beheim said.

In June, 11 months after receiving it, the lab advised police that the sample from B.P.'s rape matched DNA from two other unsolved rapes, one from 1999 and another from earlier in 2003.

McCoy spoke to the investigators in those cases and reviewed the files:

In March 1999, a woman identified as M.L., 24, reported she was walking home from the Avenue Bar when a man offered her a ride. Although M.L. has worked as a prostitute in the past, she told the man she was not working that night and asked him to take her home, she told police.

Instead, the man drove to a secluded parking lot near First Avenue and Cordova Street, flashed a badge and said he'd arrest her if she didn't give him oral sex. "M.L. told him she would rather go to jail," the affidavit says. The man then "conducted a pat search," took a knife off M.L., sliced off her bra and raped her.

On March 15, 2003, M.S., 46, was found lying beside the Glenn Highway near Fort Richardson. She told police she got into an argument with her boyfriend at the Pioneer Bar and set off for home alone. A man offered to drop her at the Red Apple in Mountain View but instead drove off the Glenn, pulling a knife when M.S. grabbed the steering wheel to thwart him. Near Arctic Valley Road he pushed her out of the truck, raped her and left her.

McCoy would not say what he found in the older files that pointed him toward Griffeth. One of the women gave police a license plate number, but current DMV records don't match the number to anyone. Whatever McCoy found, it was enough "pieces of the puzzle" to get a court order allowing him to take a DNA sample from Griffeth.

This time, it took the crime lab less than two weeks to match Griffeth's DNA to DNA from the three unsolved rapes, according to McCoy's affidavit. With the lab report in hand Friday, McCoy coordinated with the Palmer and Wasilla police departments earlier this week, and Griffeth was picked up Thursday.

A fourth woman has identified him from a photo lineup as the man who tried to rape her on March 27, 1999, in a similar offer-a-ride scenario, according to the charges. That woman fought him off and escaped from the vehicle. There is no DNA in that case, McCoy said.

Griffeth was being held Thursday night at the Anchorage jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. Prosecutor Taylor Winston said he is scheduled for a pre-arraignment court hearing this afternoon.