DNA Reveals Prime Suspect In Cold Case Rape Of OC Girl, 6

SANTA ANA, CA —Improved DNA technology has cracked a cold case, leading to the arrest of a suspect accused of raping a 6-year-old girl in 2012. This is the first time in Orange County and the second time in the state of California that DNA technology has resulted in cracking a case such as this.

Scientists in California's crime laboratory can now search for DNA connections to female defendants. The development of using DNA connections to female defendants is relatively new. Until 2018, familial DNA markers were limited to male defendants. The new methods led investigators to identify a "close relative" of 45-year-old Francisco Javier Lopez of Montebello.

Early in 2019, Santa Ana police then began surveillance of Lopez. Investigators were able to retrieve "discarded (DNA) evidence" though how they collected it was not made clear.

Santa Ana police Chief David Valentin said. Scientists in the Orange County Crime Laboratory then developed a match from Lopez's DNA to the evidence collected from the rape of the girl.

Lopez, who's being held without bail, is charged with five counts of forcible lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 14, three counts of sexual penetration of a child younger than 11, and one count each of kidnapping to commit a sex offense, oral copulation of a child younger than 11, sexual intercourse with a child younger than 11 and dissuading a witness.

He also faces sentencing enhancement allegations of causing bodily injury to a child younger than 14 and aggravated kidnapping and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged.

The 6-year-old girl was abducted on July 15, 2012 "in broad daylight" while she was playing with a 4-year-old boy in front of an apartment complex in the 1400 block of South Townsend Street between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on a Sunday night, Valentin said.

The suspect parked his car. He exited his vehicle, walked up to the young girl and said, "I have something for you to give to your mother," then grabbed her and took her away, police said.

Kidnapping the child, the he then allegedly drove to a parking lot in the area, where he sexually assaulted her.

About 90 minutes to two hours later, she was "essentially dumped out" in a neighborhood where the people who were searching for the tot found her, Valentin said.

News of the event came out. The family was traumatized.

All the while, Lopez lived in the same apartment complex as the victim. According to authorities, he did not appear to have any contact with the child or her family prior to the abduction, Valentin said. Lopez had no criminal background and as far as authorities know, has not been accused of any similar crimes.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said the girl's abduction and assault "boggles the mind. The methods in which the act was carried out was brazen. Bold.

Orange County's local database of DNA was critical to solving the case, according to Spitzer. He noted that when police submitted DNA evidence from the scene to the state's system three times over the years, they did not get a match.

The DNA sample that led to the arrest came from an unnamed female relative of Lopez. She committed a crime in 2014 and her DNA was entered into the state's database, Spitzer said. The problem was the state's scientists until recently lacked the technology to also include usable searches of female defendants.

"The DNA sat in the state system for four years until the science caught up," Spitzer said.

When police were notified of a close familial match, they turned their attention to Lopez, Spitzer said, adding that "good, old-fashioned police work" with surveillance of the defendant led to his arrest.

If Orange County did not have its own DNA database, the crime likely wouldn't have been solved, Spitzer said.

The advance in DNA technology could lead to "thousands" more cases being solved, said Elissa Mayo of the state Department of Justice's forensic services division.

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.