GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Police and prosecutors hoped cutting-edge DNA technology could tell them which identical twin brutally raped a student nearly 20 years ago in downtown Grand Rapids.
But they no longer plan to use the test after a judge in Boston ruled the technology wasn't admissible in a similar case there. So, for now, a rapist cannot be charged.
"It's very frustrating," Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker told 24 Hour News 8 on Friday. "It's very frustrating for us, for the Grand Rapids Police Department. You want to see justice done and hold somebody accountable for those actions, so it's very frustrating."
A 26-year-old Kendall College of Art and Design student was walking to her car in downtown Grand Rapids in 1999 after a night class when she was attacked.
Traditional DNA tests identified the suspect as Jerome Cooper of Twin Lakes. But police later learned he has an identical twin, Tyrone.
Both are now 50 years old and have histories of sexual assault; both denied the attack and neither had an alibi.
Traditional DNA tests can't tell the difference between the genetic makeup of identical twins.
"They both have the same DNA," their father, Otis Wade, told 24 Hour News 8 on Friday. "How the hell they going to figure that out?"