A 40-year-old man has been charged with a Colorado crime that went unsolved for almost 20 years.
Markie Lee Peoples is being charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a child in March of 1995 after the case was reviewed again this year by a Denver crime lab. The lab had reviewed the case in 2004 for DNA evidence and was able to find "biological material" on the victim's clothing, but it wasn't until this year that the lab and a Denver forensic scientist were able to develop a DNA profile thanks to advances in DNA technology.
Peoples would have been 22 when the Denver Denver District Attorney's Office says he offered the victim and her friends a ride in his car 18 years ago. She was 14 at the time.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Westword, a rape kit was administered to the victim shortly afterward but no semen was detected until the 2004 lab test, when it was discovered on her clothes. Investigators were then able to develop a DNA profile which they then submitted to the Combined DNA Index Systems, or CODIS, and it turned out to match Peoples -- a convicted offender who was already in the system.
Prosecutors allege that the assault took place after Peoples offered the victim and her friends the ride, but investigators weren't able to solve the case then.
Peoples was released on $50,000 bail and is due in court on Nov. 27 for a preliminary hearing.
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