MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) says it’s solved its first cold case.
Tony Bethea, 53, an inmate at the Mount Olive State Prison, has been charged with four counts of second degree sexual assault after a joint investigation with West Virginia State Police and the SAKI team in connection with a cold case from March 1993.
Investigators said DNA created a hit in the state data base.
There was an investigation but no arrests following the March 7, 1993 sexual assault. The suspect’s DNA was collected and held in the state lab until the SAKI team and state police could make the connection.
Bethea has been in prison in a separate sexual offenses since 2005. He has a parole date of May 2043.
Story by Mike Nolting, WAJR