DNA testing solves 20-year-old rape case

WASILLA — Alaska State Troopers announced Tuesday that DNA evidence has allowed them to finally solve a 20-year-old rape and abduction case.

Troopers identified the suspect as Brooks E. Jackson, who died in 2006.

According to an AST press statement, on Feb. 7, 1991, an 8-year-old girl was taken from a bus stop near her home at Mile 3.5 Fairview Loop. A man forced her into a pickup, drove a short distance, took her into a home and sexually assaulted her. Two and a half hours later she was dropped off on Vine Road.

Troopers say they spent hundreds, maybe thousands of hours trying to find the man, but came up short.

The case went cold until September 2010 when the state’s crime lab reported it had matched DNA in the case to a sample of Jackson’s DNA it had on file. Since then, troopers have been looking for corroborating evidence to go along with the DNA match.

Jackson’s DNA went into the system in 2005 when he was convicted of drug misconduct for growing marijuana in his house. Submitting the sample was a requirement of his felony conviction.

Six days after he gave the sample and before the sample had even made it to the crime lab, troopers report Jackson’s family found him dead. He had committed suicide.

Troopers say the federal DNA database into which Jackson’s was entered contains 9.8 million samples. Troopers say Jackson’s DNA was a perfect match.

Had he not committed suicide, troopers report, criminal charges could have been brought since there is no statute of limitations on sexual assault.

Jackson was 31 when the crimes alleged were commited.