Last Thursday, a decades-long mystery was resolved when the Plano Police Department arrested 64-year-old Nicholas Ray Carney in connection with a 1991 aggravated sexual assault of a child. The Plano Texas Police Department shared news of the breakthrough via their social media, detailing Carney's connection to a long-unsolved case involving an 8-year-old victim and the collaborative efforts leading to his capture.
The initial incident, which took place on August 15, 1991, shattered the peace of a Plano neighborhood as two children headed to a community pool were intercepted by an assailant, resulting in the abduction and assault of one child. Located hours later in Garland, Texas, the child bore the scars of an unfathomable crime. It took decades and a synergized effort utilizing the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) project to generate leads from evidence first collected at the scene. A combination of forensic science and the innovative approach of genetic genealogy, spearheaded by Bode Technology and a Plano Police Department crime analyst, was eventually used to connect Carney to the case, illustrating the potential for new technology to solve crimes long left in the shadows.
The investigation was not an island unto itself; it was an aggregative force comprising the tenacity of the surviving victims, the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas (SWIFS), the Texas Rangers, and local Dallas Police, with notable contributions from Plano Detective A. Benzick and Crime Analyst A. Desmond. Their collective efforts have shed light on a truth that for over 30 years remained elusive. Carney, a resident of Ardmore, Oklahoma, was apprehended and now awaits judicial proceedings while authorities encourage anyone with information regarding additional offenses to come forward.
