The terrible murders of a brother and sister in Georgia were unsolved for 34 years before an arrest was made possible by a decades-old rape kit.

According to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, Kenneth Perry, 55, was charged this week in connection with the stabbing deaths of Pamela Sumpter, 43, and John Sumpter, 46, in their Atlanta suburb apartment on July 15, 1990.

John Sumpter passed away right there. After being stabbed and raped, his sister Pamela was taken to the hospital, where male DNA from her attacker was discovered and a rape kit was assembled.

Read Also: Casino Controversy: MGM Grand Detroit Denies $127K Winnings to Woman

Pamela provided detectives with a thorough account of the man who attacked her and killed her brother while she was in the hospital. She said that he was her brother’s new buddy and that he was from Detroit, Michigan.

Pamela passed away from her wounds on August 5, 1990, a few days later. And there was no more progress in the matter.

Twenty years went by with no promising leads.

Then, in 2022, the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office stated that investigators sent the rape kit for testing “as part of its continuing initiative to test pre-1999 rape kit evidence.”

A male DNA profile was created by February 2023 and submitted to the state DNA database of Georgia. However, no known state-level offenders matched the profile.

The case was selected as a strong contender for the grant a few months later when the district attorney’s office applied for a federal grant for the prosecution of cases utilizing DNA.

The DNA was uploaded to a national database in February 2024, and according to prosecutors in a recent news release, it matched to a 1992 Detroit sexual assault case within days.

The district attorney’s office in Detroit received information from the victim identifying the culprit as her ex-boyfriend, Kenneth Perry, and traced him to Loganville, Georgia.

Perry was recognized by investigators as a possible suspect when their DNA matched. He was taken into custody at his Loganville residence by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit.

Perry provided a DNA sample to the investigators, and it was verified that he was the one who killed the Sumpter siblings.

Perry was charged with four counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated battery, two counts of rape, two counts of felony murder, two counts of malice murder, two counts of possession of a knife while committing a felony, and theft.

At the DeKalb County Jail, he is being held without being required to post bond.

At a press conference on Wednesday, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston stated, “We are here today because of incredible advancements in science and in investigative technology that have made what once seemed to be an unsolvable case, a solid case.”

James Sumpter, the brother of the victims, also spoke during the press conference.

“It’s been over 30 years since this terrible, evil tragedy happened to my brother and sister,” James Sumpter stated.

Reference