A program to try to solve unsolved sexual assault cases in Ventura County has led to the arrest of a man believed to be a serial sexual predator in Arizona.
A woman was sexually assaulted in Ventura County in 1994, but there wasn’t enough evidence at the time to make a case. Under the Ventura County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, DNA evidence from that attack was recently tested.
It was loaded into the national DNA database, where it matched with four previously unsolved sexual assault cases in Phoenix, Arizona. Authorities there arrested Abraham Ramirez. The 55-year-old man was indicted on 11 criminal counts for a series of sexual assaults in Phoenix from 1998 to 2013.
With the help of federal grant money, Ventura County law enforcement officials are using the latest DNA technology to reexamine 2800 unsolved sexual assault cases in the county.
Last week, officials said the program also led to the identification of a serial predator responsible for at least a half dozen sexual assaults, including two in Ventura County.
