Police in Akron, Ohio, say they have cracked a cold case using advanced DNA testing to arrest a man suspected of raping, beating, and murdering a 23-year-old woman before setting her body on fire in 1991.

Daniel L. Rees, 57, of Akron, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with aggravated murder.

He is suspected of killing Rachael M. Johnson, 23, whose body was found on March 30, 1991, in the Ohio town that lies about 40 miles south of Cleveland.

Investigators said Johnson, who was a single mother of a three-month-old infant at the time, suffered blunt-force trauma and was sexually assaulted, stabbed numerous times, and set on fire, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

According to investigators, Johnson was killed after she was forced to pull over on the side of the road with a flat tire while driving home from visiting her friend, WJW-TV reported. 

A passerby found her body and called the police.

The police recovered a DNA profile from Johnson’s autopsy in 1991, though it could not match the sample with anyone.

Daniel L. Rees, 57

Rachael M. Johnson, 23

Rachael M. Johnson, 23

Police in Akron, Ohio, say they used genealogy to arrest Daniel L. Rees (left), 57, whose DNA matched a sample found on the body of Rachael M. Johnson (right), 23, who was murdered in 1991

According to a news item from 1991, Johnson 'was repeatedly raped, stabbed 10 times in the chest, beaten and slashed across the neck'

According to a news item from 1991, Johnson 'was repeatedly raped, stabbed 10 times in the chest, beaten and slashed across the neck'

According to a news item from 1991, Johnson ‘was repeatedly raped, stabbed 10 times in the chest, beaten and slashed across the neck’

Last summer, a Texas-based genealogy company, Advance DNA LLC, began to work on the case.

According to the Beacon Journal, Advance DNA uploaded the unknown DNA profile to databases that could link it to distant relatives.

The search yielded several possible matches. Advance DNA then reverse engineered a family tree and narrowed down the possible suspect.

‘In this case, it was difficult,’ said Cheryl Hester, director of genetic genealogy at the company.

‘It took a lot of man hours for me to work on this.’

The genealogy work led police to Rees, though investigators needed more evidence before making an arrest.

Police said they picked up trash left behind by Rees to take a DNA sample.

The sample then matched the unknown DNA trace taken from Johnson’s autopsy in 1991.

Police said Rees was in the same area where Johnson was last seen.

Rees also knew Johnson’s family, but investigators who probed the initial case did not mention his name in their reports.

‘He’s a ghost in the investigation,’ Detective James Pasheilich of the Akron Police Department said.

‘He’s never anywhere in it.’

Rees was arrested and booked into Summit County Jail this week. The case is likely to go to a grand jury in the coming weeks.

Pasheilich said that without new genealogy technology, police would not have been able to make a breakthrough in the case.

‘It’s a tremendous tool to have to help clear some of these old tough cases that may never be solved without the use of that technology,’ he said. 

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