Man Arrested After DNA from 1990 Rape Kit Links Suspect to Ga. Double Murder

DNA from an over three-decade-old rape kit has linked a 55-year-old man in Georgia to a double murder.

On Tuesday, June 25, the DeKalb County Grand Jury indicted Kenneth Perry on charges connected to the 1990 deaths of Pamela Sumpter, 43, and her brother John Sumpter, 46.

According to a press release from the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office, Perry was charged with two counts of Malice Murder, two counts of Felony Murder, Rape, four counts of Aggravated Assault, two counts of Aggravated Battery, two counts of Possession of a Knife During the Commission of a Felony, and Theft by Taking.

Perry is accused of attacking the Sumpter siblings at an apartment complex on July 15, 1990, per the release.

The district attorney's office states that when officers arrived at the scene, they found John dead. His sister said that she had been stabbed and raped by a man that her brother had bought over to the apartment. She also reported that her brother had been stabbed by the man.

Although she told officers she "knew very little" about him, she was able to give a detailed description of his physical appearance and note that he was from Detroit. She died nearly a month later from her injuries on Aug. 5, 1990.

With the details and a Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA grant secured by the D.A.'s office in October 2023, the office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation uploaded the DNA to a national database in February. The DNA profile matched DNA from a 1992 unprosecuted sexual assault case in Detroit. In the file for that case, the victim identified the suspect as her ex-boyfriend, Kenneth Perry, in March.

After a private genealogy lab determined that genealogical matches to the DNA from Pamela's kit “formed a family network that could include Mr. Perry," an arrest warrant was executed in June, and a new DNA sample linked him to the DNA from the 1990 rape kit, according to the press release.

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“It’s been over 30 years since this terrible, evil tragedy happened to my brother and sister. We now have closure,” said Pamela and John's sibling, James Sumpter, at a news conference on Wednesday morning, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.