AUSTIN -- Police announced Thursday that they have identified the prime suspect in the Esme Barrera homicide and five other attacks.
Police said James Loren Brown, 25, committed suicide earlier this month.
Investigators were able to link Brown's DNA to five assault cases and he's a potential suspect in two more, including the killing of Esme Barrera.
The pieces started to fall together for investigators at 5 a.m. on Jan. 1, when a woman was assaulted in her home on East 31st Street. That same morning, Esme Barrera, a special education teacher, was killed in her home on King Street. Police say another assault happened at the same intersection, about 30 minutes earlier.
But it was the 5 a.m. attack that police tied to four other unsolved assault cases in South Austin over the summer.
"On Friday of last week, our scientists were able to confirm that the unknown DNA profile from the East 31st Street case was linked to four unsolved cases," said Austin Police Commander Julie O'Brien.
The four attacks occurred in South Austin:
- an assault on the 4300 block of South Congress July 1, 2011
- an attempted sexual assault in the 1400 block of S. Congress Avenue on July 8, 2011
- an assault on South 1st Street and Barton Springs Road on July 8, 2011
- an assault on Comal and Haskell Streets on Sept. 11, 2011.
But investigators still didn't have a name to match that DNA profile. That changed on Jan. 12, when Brown's roommate returned to their home near 30th and Guadalupe after the holidays to find Brown dead of an apparent suicide.
"Our DNA lab was able to isolate Brown's DNA profile from one of the items that were seized. They then compared that DNA profile to the DNA profile from the East 31st street case," explained Commander O'Brien. "They were able to link Brown to the unknown male DNA profile from the East 31st Street case, which then linked him to these other four incidents."
Police said the uncanny likeness of Brown's photo to recent suspect sketches released after the January attacks may have been what caused Brown to take his own life.
"While we are not saying we have solved the Esme Barrera case, I can say that based on everything we have seen so far, we are sleeping a bit more comfortably tonight," said Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo. "We are not going to rest until we bring complete closure, but what I can assure, and what we can assure the community, is that we have got the predator that is no longer amongst us."
That news was greeted warmly in the Central Austin neighborhood Brown once called home.
"It feels a lot better," said Polly Mathews, a student at the University of Texas. "I've been scared for some time now. I feel a lot more relieved about walking here."
Investigators said they not only want to match Brown's DNA to the Barrera homicide and the other unsolved assault, but they are hoping to match clothing fibers and other physical evidence to make sure they can give Barrera's family closure.
