Denton Police have made an arrest in connection to two sexual assaults in a West Windsor Drive park from the 1990s. In 1993, a 15-year-old waiting for her cross-country team was violently assaulted, and another woman was attacked in 1997.
Despite years of investigation, it wasn’t until a recent state-wide DNA search through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) that a familial match was identified. This led to the arrest and indictment of 53-year-old Marcus Deshaun Johnson on two counts of aggravated sexual assault.
Alisha Mathenia, Assistant Director of Crisis Services at The Women’s Center, believes such cases counteract the stigma surrounding reporting sexual assaults. She emphasized the hope that evolving DNA testing offers survivors in terms of closure and healing.
