SEATTLE – More than 10 years after a woman was grabbed in Seattle and raped, her alleged attacker has been identified through DNA.
The Seattle Times reported Friday that the victim’s rape kit – which at one time was among about 6,000 untested kits in the state – was finally analyzed and run through a national database.
King County prosecutors say homeless sex offender Jonnie Lee Lay was charged this week with first-degree rape. A $500,000 warrant was issued for his arrest.
Prosecutors said the 48-year-old is registered in Waukegan, Illinois.
According to the charges, on March 14, 2007, the then-44-year-old woman was walking when she was pulled into the back seat of a Cadillac. The driver dropped the woman and her assailant in a wooded area where the woman was raped.
Charging papers say the victim’s rape kit was analyzed in 2017. In February, the DNA profile was entered into the FBI’s database and matched to Lay.
[“Source-spokesman”]
