Monthly Archives: January 2013

Published: Jan. 3, 2013 at 6:05 PM

COLORADO SPRINGS, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Police say DNA analysis tied a man currently in prison for sexual assault to the 1976 slaying of Antlers Hotel housekeeper Janet Conrad in Colorado Springs.

Conrad had worked at the hotel for seven years before she was killed Dec. 3, 1976, at age 38.

Investigators had not been able to identify a suspect from the evidence they collected during the initial investigation, but the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Colorado Springs Police Department Laboratory -- working with a grant from the National Institute of Justice -- identified Robert Baillie, 58, as a suspect, The (Colorado Springs) Gazette reported Thursday.

Baillie -- who is scheduled to be eligible for parole in January 2014 in the sexual assault case -- was arrested Wednesday at the Fremont Correctional Facility in Canon City, the newspaper said.

A co-worker initiated the search for Conrad after the housekeeper seemed to vanish while at work. Conrad's body was found in a linen closet and a subsequent autopsy determined she had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled.

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DNA links Colorado man to 1976 slaying

MADISON, AL (WAFF) -

The Alabama soldier arrested in Colorado on kidnapping and other charges in November 2012, is back in custody on charges out of Madison, Alabama.

Aaron Lucas was taken into custody in El Paso County, Colorado, Wednesday afternoon on Fort Carson. Lucas was arrested on charges stemming from a 2007 Madisoncase. The charges on the warrant were enticing a child and sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years of age.

He was booked into the Criminal Justice Center in Colorado Springs without bond as a fugitive from justice.

Lucas was firstarrested on October 23, 2012, in connection with an El Paso County, Coloradokidnapping case and a separate enticement of a child case, each from 2012, as well as for his connection to similar cases from other Colorado jurisdictions.

Madison investigators said DNA evidence links Lucas to a December 2007 case where a six-year-old girl was abducted after getting off her school bus. The attacker then molested her and dropped her off near her home after the attack.

Investigators took DNA evidence at that time, but an arrest was not made.

When Lucas was arrested in Colorado, investigators took a sample of his DNA and ran it through a database. They got a hit on the 2007 case in Madison, and notified Alabama authorities two to three weeks ago.

Madison Police said they don't currently have any more victims, but they aren't ruling out the possibility.

Investigators contacted the Madison victim's family to alert them to the arrest. It's unclear if they still live in North Alabama.

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DNA links soldier arrested in Colo. to Madison sex crime

Ohios state crime labs are processing DNA and other forensic work at a record pace after hiring more lab scientists and reviewing procedures, according to reports from the attorney general and Ohio Highway Patrol.

Attorney General Mike DeWine on Friday released information showing the Bureau of Criminal Investigation lab in London cut the average turnaround time to analyze DNA and forensic biology evidence from 99 days in January 2012 to about 20 in December 2012. The BCI averaged 125 days in December 2010, which DeWine called unacceptable when he began his term in January 2011.

This is a matter sometimes of life or death; this is a matter of protecting the public, DeWine said. If you wait 125 days to get a hit that means that for 125 days that rapist has been loose and maybe we could have caught him.

The turnaround time for the two processes averaged about 62 days during 2012, according to our Columbus bureaus examination of BCI data. DeWine said he did not have information about previous averages. The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported in 2010 that the BCI averaged 71 days in processing DNA evidence that year.

DeWine did not dispute those numbers, saying the count likely only included DNA processing.

DeWine told reporters that decreasing the turnaround time has been a priority and money from other areas was diverted to fund the changes. The BCI lab added 24 scientists, doubled the number of DNA testing robots from six to 12 and reduced the number of steps to complete analyzing evidence. The BCI lab went from 99 employees at the end of 2010 to 148 today.

If were backed up at the lab, everything else is backed up in the judicial system, DeWine said.

The BCI lab processes about 5,300 cases each month about half the lab work done in the state. DeWine said about 90 percent of the states police departments send work to the BCI for free analysis.

The Ohio Highway Patrol Lab plans to become more efficient using some of the same methods as the BCI lab. Highway Patrol sends DNA evidence to the BCI lab, but analyzes blood and urine samples and identifies drugs and other substances for the patrol and other law enforcement agencies across the state, said spokesperson Lt. Anne Ralston.

The lab reported a backlog of 4,069 cases in August 2011 and a turnaround timeline of 83 days.

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DNA delays decreasing in Ohio cases