MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – New science and a lot of hard work helped the Hennepin County Attorney’s office close a 17-year-old cold case.
In 1996, an 82-year-old woman was raped near her north Minneapolis home on the 3300 block of Aldridge Avenue North; a crime that was hard for investigators to forget.
Although investigators never found the person responsible, they did have the DNA he left behind.
“But the specimen was so small that DNA testing in 1996 couldn’t get a test result that would be accurate,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said.
So the case went cold, until investigators got a break recently.
A grant from the National Institute of Justice allowed investigators to review Minneapolis files from 1991 to 2007, leading investigators back to that alley in north Minneapolis.
According to the criminal complaint, the 82-year-old victim was walking her dog in the alley behind her home when the suspect pulled her between two garages. He demanded money and when she told him she didn’t have any, he raped her.
According to investigators, new technology requires only a small amount of DNA for positive ID, and it helped put Kevin Haynes at the scene.
“It was a match. We put out an alert for Haynes and found him, charged him. He’s in Wisconsin and we’re finally going to bring Haynes to justice for this 1996 rape,” Freeman said.
Freeman said his office hopes this new technology and grant money will allow them to solve several more cases where DNA can lead to an arrest.
Haynes has been charged with first-degree criminal misconduct.
He will be brought back to Minnesota to face those charges later this week.
The family of the victim said they are happy justice will soon be served.
