Volunteer cold case detectives with the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office say they’ve solved a 28-year-old rape case.
A Prescott woman reported she had been sexually assaulted by an unknown attacker in the parking lot of a bar off Highway 89A in 1995.
The victim was only able to provide a vague description of her attacker. Detectives at the time were able to retrieve DNA as well as fingerprints but could not identify a suspect.
YCSO Cold Case Detectives took over the case in 2022. They discovered the DNA sample had never been entered into the national database known as CODIS.
The profile was entered into the database and soon came back as a match to 52-year-old Gerald Todd Tubbs of Prescott Valley. Tubbs has since been arrested for sexual assault in connection with the incident. He remains in custody in the Yavapai County jail.
YCSO Sheriff David Rhodes praised the work of the volunteers in a statement.
"The follow-through of the volunteer YCSO Cold Case detectives has once again helped with closure for a woman who has been waiting close to 30 years”, Rhodes said. “I cannot overstate how valuable these volunteers are to our agency and I thank them for their hard work bringing justice to this victim.”