DNA testing allows police to charge suspect in 31-year-old rape case

A rape case from 1989 in Missouri is no longer unsolved, as police say a man has been charged in connection to the 31-year-old incident.

On Sept. 30, 1989, a woman was walking home in North County, Missouri, around 4 a.m. when she was attacked at gunpoint and taken to a nearby carport, assaulted and raped, police said.

According to authorities, the suspect and the victim were strangers. The victim reported the crime to police immediately.

At the time of the incident, the victim was 29 years old and she is now 61, officials said.

However, the case went cold until police recently resubmitted evidence from the rape for additional testing using the police laboratory’s latest technology, Call Newspapers reported.

This new testing gave police a hit in the national DNA database in 2019, police said. An investigation began and it led to a suspect and an arrest in 2021.

Warrants were issued on Jan. 11 for Quincy Smith, 49, for the 1989 rape, police said.

Smith would have been 18 years old at the time of the assault and charged with one count of forcible rape, police said.

Smith’s DNA was a “major source” of the DNA found in the victim’s underwear, police said.

Smith was arrested without incident on April 28 and is being held on $50,000 bond.