DNA Evidence Links 1980s Murders of D.C. Lesbian, Another Woman
DNA evidence has provided a link between the rapes and murders of a lesbian and another woman in the same Washington, D.C., apartment building in the 1980s.Greta Rainey, 35, was raped and strangled in 1987 in her girlfriend’s apartment in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Her girlfriend, Roxanne Johnson, 32 at the time, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Johnson maintained she was innocent, and the charges were dropped four months later without explanation, the Washington Blade reports.Florence Eyssalenne, 23, had been raped and strangled in an apartment on the same floor in 1985.
Police had obtained DNA samples in rape kits, but they were able only recently to create a full DNA profile that links the crimes to the same suspect, according to D.C.
TV station WRC. For some reason the 1985 kit was never tested; it is unclear if the other one had been.“Essentially, the identity of this person is still unknown to us; however, we can say the individual is a male.
