How the Chicago Police Department handles DNA samples from unsolved crimes was again the focus of police commanders’ attention on Monday after they learned that the murders of three South Side women could have been solved two months ago.
Police commanders were looking into why a DNA sample from Ronald Macon, an accused rapist, was not contained in a computerized DNA databank designed to help detectives solve crimes.
Macon, 35, has been sitting in the Cook County Jail since Aug. 9 on charges he raped his former baby-sitter, yet homicide detectives learned only this past weekend that Macon’s DNA matched that gathered at the murder scenes of three South Side women earlier this year.
Macon, of the 4800 block of South State Street, was charged Sunday with three counts of murder.
Wentworth Area Detective Cmdr. Frank Trigg said it was unclear why Macon’s DNA from his August arrest on sex-crime charges was not contained in law enforcement computers.
Trigg said he wants to know if officials took a DNA sample from Macon, and if they had, why the sample wasn’t in the computer.
“It’s a new system,” Trigg said. “Because of its newness it’s going to have some inherent problems. We are recommending changes as we go along when we recognize problems to solidify the validity of the system.”
Suspects’ DNA samples, such as hair, blood or saliva, are supposed to be taken from them and then matched with samples stored in the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, to see if the suspects might be linked by their genetic material to other unsolved crimes.
Macon’s case and how it was handled marks the second time in just over a year that Chicago police have had to answer potentially embarrassing questions about how the department gathers DNA from suspects.
Floyd Durr, the main suspect in the 1998 slaying of 11-year-old Ryan Harris, might have been off the streets months before the girl’s death were it not for inconsistent police procedures for gathering and submitting DNA for comparison to unsolved crimes, authorities said.
Samples of semen, allegedly from Durr, were found at the scene of two rapes of young girls in January 1998. But those samples were never submitted to the DNA database, even though it was specifically designed to identify suspects in crimes for which there are no leads and the only evidence is blood or other bodily fluids, according to police sources.
For months on the South Side, police have been investigating four separate patterns of murders and rapes of women in the New City, Englewood and Washington Park neighborhoods.
Detectives categorized the cases by the first four letters of the alphabet in order to better keep track of the victims and suspects.
The most perplexing case has involved Suspect A, who detectives said is responsible for seven slayings and one rape. Suspect B is responsible for one homicide and two rapes, and Suspect C is linked to two homicides, although police have arrested three gang members for one of the killings attributed to Suspect C.
Suspect D, according to police, is responsible for three homicides: Rosezina Williams 50, found dead June 21 in a trash receptacle; Linda Soloman, 36, found dead April 14 in a stairwell; and Angelnetta Peeples, found Feb. 20 in an abandoned building.
Each woman had been raped, strangled, kicked and punched.
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About two weeks ago, detectives developed Macon’s name as someone who was last seen with one of the victims tied to Suspect D, Trigg said.
Detectives found Macon at the Cook County Jail, where he is being held on $1.25 million bond on charges he raped his former baby-sitter, a 65-year-old South Side woman, in September 1998, said Robert Benjamin, a spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
On Thursday, Macon voluntarily provided saliva for DNA testing, and three days later he was linked to the Suspect D killings, police said.
Trigg said that when Macon first was arrested in August for the sex-crime charges, he made no statement about the killings.
Macon, who earned a living rehabbing buildings, had a lengthy arrest record, mostly for minor crimes. He gave a videotaped statement in which he allegedly admitted his role in the three slayings, Trigg said.
“He did indicate his account of all three (killings) in specific detail in a videotaped confession,” Trigg said. “They were killed as a result of his victims causing him aggravation.”
Trigg declined to say what allegedly set off Macon.