Suspect arrested for 1987 murder of a California boy
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - A Solano County cold case was cracked because of DNA.
The case involves a six-year-old boy who was raped and murdered in 1987. His body was discovered in Sacramento County and now, thanks to a DNA match, the suspected killer was tracked down and arrested in Oregon.
Fred Cain is finally behind bars, 36 years after prosecutors say he murdered, and sexually assaulted six-year-old Jeremy Stoner.
Prosecutors said he was kidnapped near his Vallejo home. Four days later, his body was found in Sacramento County, on Sherman Island.
Cracking cases, both cold and closed
DNA evidence is what gave new life to Jeremy's case, resulting in Cain's arrest.
"It’s probably the most exciting time in the world of crime solving, crime prevention, exonerations that we have ever seen in our lifetime," said Anne Marie Schubert, former District Attorney for Sacramento County.
Schubert is an expert in forensic DNA, and says the progression in this technology is cracking cases, both cold and closed.
"We are at a point now with forensic DNA that we have the ability to potentially solve 90% of violent crime with DNA," Schubert added.
Cain's connection to another cold case?
A month before Jeremy went missing, nine-year-old Eric Coy was murdered near his home about a half hour away from Vallejo in Martinez.
His killer has never been found. But, could there be another DNA connection?
"Pathologists collect evidence at the autopsy and it could be anything from the sexual assault examination, which could be swabs from the body, it could be fingernail scrapings, it could be clothing," Schubert detailed.
It's come down to this: What was collected at the time, and what can still be tested.
