Florida man arrested in cold case NYC rapes from over 20 years ago thanks to new DNA tracing method
A Florida man has been arrested for allegedly raping two women in New York City more than 20 years ago after investigators used a cutting-edge genetic tracing method to link him to the crimes, authorities said Thursday.
Jancys Santiago, 48, was charged in a pair of cold cases — a 2000 rape in Manhattan and a 2001 rape in the Bronx — with the help of “Investigative Genetic Genealogy,” an emerging field that combines DNA analysis and traditional genealogy research, the Bronx and Manhattan District Attorneys’ Offices said.
It was the first time the method was used in the Empire State to solve sexual assault cases, the DAs’ Offices claimed.
“Our Bronx victim said she had been waiting more than 20 years to hear that her alleged rapist was caught,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement.
“Investigative Genetic Genealogy will help solve all sorts of cold cases, not limited to murders, and hold perpetrators accountable. It will also help to name our unidentified homicide victims so their relatives can have closure.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg added: “Alongside our partners in law enforcement, we never give up on seeking accountability – particularly for such horrific and violent allegations as these.”
During the first rape, on May 23, 2000, Santiago allegedly broke into the Midtown apartment of a 27-year-old woman who discovered him when she got home, prosecutors said.
He forced her into the bathroom and tied her arms and feet with a wire hanger before raping her, the DA alleged.
In December 2001, Santiago allegedly similarly broke into the Bronx apartment of a 21-year-old woman — who was sleeping at the time — and covered her face, bound her with a wire hanger, and raped her, prosecutors claimed.
“These poor women, these survivors were in their apartments where they should feel safe,” NYPD Deputy Chief Brian McGee said at a press conference Thursday of the victims — who were strangers to Santiago.
“They weren’t safe because he broke in.”
Investigators working on the cases recently turned to a new technique, which takes DNA profiles from crime scene evidence and runs it through consumer DNA databases to find family links for the perpetrator with people who agreed to allow their generic materials to be used to help law enforcement.
They used DNA from rape kits to make a family tree and used the results to identify Santiago as the suspect — confirming their findings with a recent DNA “abondonment sample” taken off of a water bottle the accused rapist threw out in Florida, McGee told reporters.
“They were able to take that abandonment sample and match it up to both samples from the crime scenes 12 miles apart in 2000 and 2001 and it was a match,” McGee said.
Santiago, who was living in Groveland, Fla., was extradited to New York and arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court on Nov. 9, where he was ordered held without bail.
He was arraigned in Bronx Supreme Court on Nov. 15 and bail was later set at $1 million cash or $2.5 million bond.
His criminal defense lawyers on both cases didn’t immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
IGG was first used to help solve the Golden State Killer case, which in 2018 helped link former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo to a series of rapes and murders in California between 1975 and 1986, McGee said.
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts