Man charged with 1990 double murder of siblings after DNA link made

Thirty-four years after the murder of a brother and sister, a man has been charged with the killings after his DNA was linked to the unsolved case, prosecutors in the US state of Georgia said.

According to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, John Sumpter was stabbed to death and his sister Pamela Sumpter was raped and stabbed to death in their Stone Mountain apartment on July 15, 1990.

46-year-old John Sumpter died at the scene, prosecutors said.

Pamela Sumpter, 43, survived and underwent a rape kit at the hospital, prosecutors said.

Pamela Sumter told police her brother brought a male acquaintance with him. She provided a description of him and said he was from Detroit, prosecutors said.

Weeks later, on August 5, 1990, Pamela Sumpter succumbed to her injuries, prosecutors said.

The case remained unsolved for decades.

Then, in 2022, state investigators sent the rape kit for examination “as part of their ongoing initiative to examine evidence from pre-1999 rape kits,” prosecutors said.

In February 2023, DNA from the rape kit was uploaded to a nationwide DNA database, but there was no match, prosecutors said.

The prosecutor’s office said it then applied for and received a federal grant to prosecute cases using DNA.

This February, the DNA was uploaded to a national database and within days, it was a match to a 1992 sexual assault case in Detroit, prosecutors said.

In the Detroit case – which was never prosecuted – the victim identified her tormentor as her ex-boyfriend, Kenneth Perry, prosecutors said.

Police also sent the rape kit evidence to a private lab to conduct forensic genetic genealogy, which identifies unknown DNA by comparing it to that of family members who voluntarily submit DNA samples to a database, said DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston.

Genetic genealogy analysis also led investigators to Perry, Boston officials said.

Perry, now 55 and a resident of Loganville, Georgia, was arrested on June 6, prosecutors said Wednesday. The DNA sample collected during Perry’s arrest also matched Pamela Sumpter’s rape kit, prosecutors said.

Perry was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, premeditated murder and rape, prosecutors said. He is being held without bail in the DeKalb County Jail.

“We are here today because incredible advances in science and investigative technology have turned a case that once seemed unsolvable into a compelling case,” Boston said at a news conference Wednesday.

“It has been over 30 years since this terrible, evil tragedy happened to my brother and sister. We have now found closure,” said the victims’ brother, James Sumpter, at the press conference. “I pray that the justice system prevails.”