An arrest was made in a sexual assault case that ran cold for more than a decade, with the assistance of DNA evidence and new testimony, Dallas police said in a Friday news release.
The Dallas Police Department arrested Jarvis Pierce, 35, in June. He faces a sexual assault charge.
Dallas police detective Elizabeth DeAngelis, who has led a collaboration between the department and the Department of Justice’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative since 2021, was working on one of the department’s oldest cold cases.
In February of this year, DeAngelis was alerted that DNA evidence from one of the cold cases resulted in a match. She and Dallas police detective Sara Sheerin, who was cast in the TV show Police Women of Dallas, teamed up to to re-interview victims, collect more evidence and compare the new DNA samples with those collected years earlier.
After sifting through all the evidence, DeAngelis and Sheerin believed Pierce was a match to the DNA, according to the release.
The duo pulled in Dallas police detective Carlos Cardenas, who has over 20 years of experience at the department, to interrogate a person believed to be involved. The detectives paired the new testimony with the DNA evidence and secured a warrant for Pierce’s arrest, according to the release.
According to the department, it’s examining if Pierce is connected with other pending cold cases. An attorney for Pierce could not immediately be located.
The case was supported through the Dallas Police Department’s work with the Department of Justice’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, according to the news release. SAKI partners with police departments across the country to gather and examine DNA evidence that could address unsolved sexual assault cases.
The department expressed its gratitude to DeAngelis, Sheerin and Cardenas.
“Their passion for justice takes courage and throughout the years has helped give courage and hope to those victims who may have lost it along the way,” it said in the release. “Their combined efforts serve as a powerful reminder that working together as a team helps you go farther than you ever could alone and that everyone deserves a chance to be heard.”
The news release did not provide additional information about the case. DPD declined to comment further.