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.
17% of Tampa residents are using 40% of the water during the worst drought in half a century
Mayor Jane Castor and Rory Jones, the city's water department director, gathered at the Hillsborough River Dam to sound the alarm. The dam itself tells the story more plainly than any statistic.
