As part of its ongoing attempt to apprehend the Charlottesville serial rapist, the Albemarle County Police Department this week established a 24-hour manned hotline solely dedicated to the pursuit of the suspect.
With the implementation of the hotline, the police now have four avenues of communication through which the public can offer information pertaining to the suspect: the new hotline, the Crimestoppers phone line, the e-mail address wanted@albemarle.org and written correspondence with Det. Randy Higgins.
"Some people like computers, so we generated the albermarle.org e-mail," Albemarle Police Lt. Greg Jenkins said. "We wanted to open as many connections to the citizens as possible, and we felt that the serial sexual assault hotline may be able to specifically direct people to the serial rapist and rape case itself."
According to Jenkins, all calls will be answered immediately. He stressed that the hotline is open to any information anyone may have.
"Sure, we'd like to have a name, address, where we could pick this guy up at," Jenkins said. "But really we're looking for just as much as we can to help us solve this. Any information that a citizen might have, no matter how insignificant they think it might be, they should contact us."
The Charlottesville Police Department also recently released results of the suspect's DNA analysis. The sample, left at the crime scene by the rapist, reveals his ancestry to be an estimated 85 percent Sub-Saharan African, 12 percent European and 3 percent Native American. However, the report warns that the components of race other than Sub-Saharan African will likely not contribute to his overall appearance.
Capt. J.E. "Chip" Harding of the Charlottesville Police Department said that the DNA analysis confirmed the victims' descriptions of the rapist.
"We've had several rapes in the last few years in the University where the woman assaulted couldn't tell if they were black or white because they were in dark places," Capt. Harding said. "In this case, [the analysis] wasn't that helpful, and some people might say, 'Why did they bother?' But we wanted to leave no stone unturned -- it's new technology that's constantly evolving, and any new information is helpful."
Genetic testing has confirmed a link between at least seven sexual assaults in and around Charlottesville. The last assault occurred Aug. 18 in Albemarle County.
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