CEDAR CITY, Utah, Jan. 8, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — An arrest has been made in a 16-year-old sexual assault case out of Cedar City.
Coconino County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona arrested 58-year-old David Louis Slade of Eagar, Arizona for a sexual assault committed in 2003 in their jurisdiction, said a news release from Cedar City Police Department.
Slade was also identified through DNA as the suspect in a sexual assault committed in Cedar City stemming from a case in 2004.
“In July 2004, the 18-year-old victim had reported an unknown male suspect entered her apartment, held her against her will and sexually assaulted her,” the news release said. “Detectives gathered DNA evidence left by the suspect where a DNA profile was obtained, but the suspect was not identified.”
The DNA profile from both the Cedar City case and the Coconino County case were submitted independently to databases. The database found that the DNA profile from both cases were from the same suspect, but that suspect was unidentified. The cases had remained unsolved until now, the news release said.
In late December of 2019, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office obtained a DNA sample from Slade and sent it to the Arizona DPS Crime Lab where they found that it matched to the suspect in both sexual assault cases from 2003 in Arizona and 2004 in Cedar City.
On Thursday, Arizona law enforcement officers arrested Slade. Cedar City Police Department detectives were notified of the match from the DNA and the arrest of Slade. Cedar City detectives have started the process to submit for charges through the Iron County Attorney’s Office, the news release said.
Slade is being held at the Coconino County Jail on charges of kidnapping, burglary and sexual assault from their case.
“The Cedar City Police Department would like to thank all the agencies involved in the identification, location, and arrest of Slade,” the news release said.
