PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida man has been arrested in connection with a 1998 sexual battery case after detectives used genetic genealogy to identify him.
Pinellas County detectives say the victim, then 20 years old, was attacked and sexually battered after leaving a club in Ybor City alone. She accepted a ride from two men, and after one was dropped off, the suspect drove to a wooded area near the Gandy Bridge, struck her, and threatened her with a firearm before the assault.
DNA collected at the time was stored but yielded no matches until advances in genetic genealogy provided new leads. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement identified a suspect through family tree mapping, eventually linking the case to 53-year-old Lester Austin III.
Austin was arrested at his residence by the U.S. Marshal’s Task Force and booked into the Pinellas County Jail on two counts of armed sexual battery.
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