EAGAR, Ariz. — Coconino County Sheriff's detectives arrested a man after DNA evidence connected him with two sexual assaults that happened nearly 20 years ago.
The first attack happened in April 2003 just outside of Flagstaff, when an 18-year-old said a man broke into her home and sexually assaulted her.
Investigators obtained DNA from the scene, but the suspect was never identified.
In 2004, another young woman in Cedar City, Utah, reported a man entered her home and sexually assaulted her, the sheriff's office said.
DNA from the Utah scene was submitted separately to a database, which tied the same unknown suspect to both crimes.
However, the suspect stayed unidentified and the case went cold.
Coconino County detectives re-submitted the DNA to the Arizona Department of Public Safety's Crime Lab DNA Unit in 2019 – requesting a search of DNA samples taken from people who were arrested or convicted of felony crimes for a familial tie to the suspect.
DPS found two potential relatives who had been arrested on crimes unrelated to the sexual assaults.
Sheriff's office detectives identified 58-year-old David Louis Slade of Eagar, Arizona, as a suspect and obtained a DNA sample from him.
Slade was arrested on Thursday after analysts found a match. He faces charges of kidnapping, burglary and sexual assault.
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