Edmonton police use DNA to charge man in 1994 sexual assault cold case

Edmonton police have charged a 47-year-old man with sexually assaulting a woman in her west-end apartment in November 1994.

The accused was identified with the help of DNA evidence, police said in a news release Friday.

Dean Walter Moore was arrested on Tuesday with the help of the Medicine Hat Police Service and charged with housebreaking with intent, sexual assault with a weapon, unlawful confinement and theft under $5,000.

The charges relate to a break-and-enter and sexual assault reported to police in November 1994.

Around 3 a.m. on Nov. 26, 1994, police were told a man broke into an apartment in the area of 65th Avenue and 172nd Street and sexually assaulted a woman who had been sleeping in her bed.

The suspect, who was not known to to the 28-year-old woman, was armed with a knife.

He bound the woman before sexually assaulting her, police said.

The woman freed herself after the man left her apartment. She called police and went to a hospital where she was examined.

Evidence collected from the examination was considered for forensic testing "but was ultimately deemed to be unsuitable for further testing at the time," police said in Friday's statement.

In January of this year, the file was assigned to a cold case sexual assault investigator.

The RCMP lab was consulted and various exhibits were identified as being suitable for DNA testing, police said.

Subsequent analysis identified a DNA profile that matched a convicted offender in the National DNA Data Bank.

The Edmonton Police Service initiated a review of cold case sexual assault files in 2016. 

Two detectives with the unit are assigned to review historical crimes and identify where modern technology or investigative purposes may be able to shed light on previously unsolved cases.