August 22, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Houston Police Department is commending a team from the Houston Forensic
Science Center’s Biology Section for quick, quality work that helped with the arrest of
an accused serial rapist.
The group of 13 HFSC analysts will be awarded HPD’s Chief of Police Unit Citation at
an awards ceremony on August 23. The HFSC staff receiving the commendation are:
Jennifer Clay, Ben Cambridge, Maria Rumble, Zoraya Reyes, India Henry, Katie Foster,
Kerry Todd, Mary Hall, Mary Symonds, Diana Donley, Jisel Bailon, Clay Davis and
Courtney Head.
The case they are receiving a commendation for involved a serial rapist, and it was the
expedited DNA work this group did that allowed police and prosecutors to find, arrest
and charge a suspect. It was also DNA testing that indicated to police they initially had
the wrong person in custody. He was released.
The work began on August 21, 2015 when a sexual assault kit was processed and
samples were prepared for DNA analysis. On September 15, 2015 a report issued noted
an unknown male DNA profile has been obtained from the complainant’s breast swabs.
This information was input into the federal DNA database, or CODIS.
Months later, on January 13, 2016, HFSC’s Biology Section received a new request to
conduct DNA analysis on a pen believed to have been handled by a possible suspect.
The item was processed and a report was issued a week later. At 10 a.m. on January 22,
the lab received a sample for comparison from a suspect. DNA analysis excluded that
suspect, allowing investigators to eliminate him and focus on other suspects. That same
evening, a reference sample from a new suspect, Reginald Bond, was tagged into HPD’s
property room. On Saturday January 23, four analysts came into work to expedite the
analysis. The testing indicated Mr. Bond could not be excluded as a suspect based on a
DNA comparison to the breast swabs that had been tested in August 2015.
In both cases, testing and reporting was completed in 10 hours or less. An arrest was
made based on the findings.
HFSC is a local government corporation that provides forensic services to the City of
Houston and other local agencies. HFSC is overseen by a Board of Directors appointed
by the Mayor of Houston and confirmed by the Houston City Council. Its management
structure is designed to be responsive to a 2009 recommendation by the National
Academy of Sciences that called for crime laboratories to be independent of law
enforcement and prosecutorial branches of government.
HFSC currently has eight forensic sections.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Ramit Plushnick-Masti
Director of Communications/Public Information Officer
media@houstonforensicscience.org
713-929-6768
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