Rape Case DNA Links Ex-Cop to 1986 Murder

There could be several more victims, Spokane police say
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 5, 2015 12:15 AM CDT
Rape Case DNA Links Ex-Cop to 1986 Murder
A sign welcomes motorists to Pasco, Wash.   (AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios)

DNA that an ex-cop submitted in a rape investigation has linked him to one unsolved murder and possibly several others, police in Spokane, Wash., say. Richard Aguirre, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman last November, was at a hearing in that case this week when officers arrived to arrest him for the 1986 murder of Spokane prostitute Ruby Doss, the Tri-City Herald reports. She was one of five Spokane women, mostly sex workers, found strangled between January 1986 and August 1987, the year before Aguirre moved away from Spokane and joined the force in Pasco, more than 100 miles away, the Spokesman-Review reports. The 51-year-old officer was placed on leave after the rape charge and resigned from the force last month.

According to court documents, Aguirre's DNA matches that of semen in a condom found at the Doss murder scene and of saliva on her underwear. Police say Aguirre's DNA is also being considered in other cases, and the investigation has found what the Herald calls a "large stash of sex videos" that could lead to more charges, including rape and voyeurism. "There are multiple unidentified victims that have been recorded during sex acts that we are trying to identify as potential victims," a police spokesman says. "These victims may have been recorded without their knowledge." (A cigarette led investigators to a suspect in a 17-year-old cold case in Oklahoma.)

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