Suspect arrested for murder of husband and sister in DeKalb home in 1990

DEKALB COUNTY, Georgia – A gruesome crime that left a brother and sister dead in DeKalb County in 1990 appears to have finally been solved.

On Thursday, June 6, Kenneth P. Perry of Loganville was booked into the DeKalb County Jail and charged with two counts of murder and one count of rape.

Perry’s arrest warrants, obtained by 11Alive on Friday, are heavily redacted and include information about the crime scene and the victims, among other things.

However, the arrest warrants provide details of the double murder on Sunday, July 15, 1990.

According to arrest warrants, the man who was killed, whose identity is unknown, took Perry to his home, where his sister was also staying, between midnight and shortly after 4:00 a.m.

At some point during that four-hour period, prosecutors allege, Perry stabbed the man and killed him inside the house.

Prosecutors subsequently alleged that Perry entered the man’s sister’s room, put a pillow over her head, raped her and stabbed her several times.

The arrest warrant states that she tried to call 911, but Perry “ripped the cord out of the wall.”

She died two weeks after the brutal attack.

It would be Years – In fact, 22 years before the victim’s sex offender kit could be tested.

In a previous sexual assault case, DeKalb County District Attorney Shery Boston explained that before 1998, investigators could not test DNA evidence unless they had a suspect to compare the samples to. As a result, many of the pre-1999 rape kits were not tested and were stored at the GBI.

Perry’s arrest warrant states that in 2022, his alleged victim’s sex offender kit was tested and a male DNA profile was created.

In 2024, the warrant states, prosecutors had the DNA profile uploaded to a national database. Their strategy worked, as they received a DNA hit more than 700 miles away in Detroit.

Perry’s arrest warrant states that the DNA match is connected to an unsolved sexual assault case and that the accused suspect is Perry.

It was not until 33 years after the alleged crime that the prosecution presented its evidence to a judge.

On June 5, his arrest warrants were signed and the following afternoon, June 6, Perry was arrested by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office.

On June 7, Perry appeared before a justice of the peace, who was unable to set bail due to the seriousness of his charges. His next appearance will be before a Superior Court judge in the coming weeks.