ABQRAW staffPosted: December 21, 2021 5:05 PM
Suspect Edward Duran booking mug
Albuquerque –
A decades old rape case from 1997 has been solved thanks to a positive DNA match from Albuquerque Police Department evidence and the District Attorney Raúl Torrez’s office collecting DNA from a fork at a local restaurant. The suspect is Edward Gilbert Duran of Albuquerque.
According to the criminal complaint, in 1997 a rape happened at an ABQ apartment and the victim was able to give a description of the suspect and APD detectives collected DNA evidence from the victim. The victim sustained very violent injuries to her body during the attack.
In 2020, APD’s Crime Lab took the victim’s rape kit to Bode Technology the company outsourced to help with the rape kit back log. Bode Technology has genealogy databases with tech companies that can identify criminals through DNA. The DNA profile identified Duran’s DNA to at least 8 cases within APD’s case back log.
The complaint states, a special agent with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office started doing surveillance in November of 2021 on Duran. He was able to confirm where Duran lived. On November 15th, 2021, the special agent was able to follow Duran and his family to what appeared to be his birthday dinner at the Samurai Grill and Sushi Bar. The family left the dinner and the special agent was able to obtain Duran’s fork he used for dinner. The DA’s office sent the fork off to a lab for further testing and a positive match connected Duran to the rapes and the on file DNA samples.
Duran was booked into Bernalillo County Metro Detention Center on two counts of sexual penetration on December 21, 2021.