Shreveport Police Dept.

Date: May 10, 2007

Phone: 318/673-6932 Fax: 318/673-6933

Contact: Kacee Hargrave, Public Information Officer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Diligent work by SPD investigators solves old rape cases

Shreveport Police have been working feverishly over the past few months to solve cold cases, and their efforts have paid off with the closure of at least two rape cases and the arrests of three serial rapists.

Arrest warrants have been issued for 39-year-old Rodney Washington and 36-year-old Harry Richardson on charges of aggravated rape for sexual assault of an elderly woman in 1994. Bond is set at $750,000 each.

Tomorrow will mark 13 years since the victim, then age 83, was raped and robbed in her residence in the 200 block of W. 69^th Street. The incident occurred on May 11, 1994.

Both Washington and Richardson had recently been released from prison after being convicted of another rape that occurred in July 1994 – two months after the previously unsolved rape of the elderly woman.

Thanks to new technology and a cold case grant awarded to SPD in July of 2005, evidence recovered from the 1994 case linked the two suspects to the rape. Both are behind bars for other crimes and will be brought to Shreveport to face aggravated rape charges.

Ironically, the suspect arrested for raping an 81-year-old woman last weekend has been linked to another cold case – the rape of an 81-year-old woman in 2005.

Calvin “C.J.” Breakfield, 16, is now charged with a second count of aggravated rape that occurred on June 19, 2005, in the 8000 block of Jewella Avenue. That crime was committed in a similar manner to the recent one. After noticing the similarities, crime scene investigators were able to link Breakfield to the cold case.

-spd-

View all SPD press releases at www.ci.shreveport.la.us/dept/police/spdnews

About the Cold Case Grant

Shreveport Police Department was awarded a federal grant in July of 2005 that provided funding for the investigation of cold cases in the City of Shreveport.

The $263,200 grant provides for the hiring of an analyst for the Louisiana Crime Lab to conduct DNA testing on those cold cases and for detectives to work overtime on those cases.

Over 1,000 cases have been reviewed, and 52 have been found to meet the criteria for further investigation. This includes 30 homicides, 2 robberies and 20 rapes.

In years past, DNA testing was not available. But with the latest technologies, some old cases can now be solved. In addition, a national database called CODIS will allow DNA to be loaded into the system and searched for matches to potential suspects. The more DNA that is input into the system, the better the chances of a match being found.

Several DNA tests have been conducted on the cold cases, and the results of those tests have been sent to CODIS. It is hoped in the future, many more Shreveport cases will be solved.

-spd-

View all SPD press releases at www.ci.shreveport.la.us/dept/police/spdnews