PHOENIX – A 54-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a string of sexual assaults and kidnappings in the Phoenix area dating back as far as 1994, police announced Friday.
Investigators say Abraham Ramirez is accused in four separate assaults in Arizona between 1998 and 2013, with victims ranging in age from 17 to 20. In each case, police say the victims were either offered or forced into a vehicle, assaulted, and then left at another location.
Evidence collected over the years was recently matched through the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) to an unsolved 1994 sexual assault case in Ventura County, California. Authorities say the connection emerged only after Ventura County began processing decades-old sexual assault kits under a new grant program.
Police arrested Ramirez on Aug. 4 after spotting him outside a Phoenix apartment complex near 51st and Northern avenues. He was booked into Maricopa County jail on multiple counts of sexual assault and kidnapping. Officials say Ramirez denied knowing any of the victims and refused to provide a DNA sample.
Phoenix police credited the persistence of detectives and forensic scientists, who continued pursuing the cases for years through evolving technologies such as genetic genealogy and familial DNA testing.
