LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A sexual assault case that's been cold for nearly two decades now has a suspect facing charges, according to Kentucky State Police. 

KSP said in a recent news release that there is now a DNA match in the case, thanks in large part to testing capabilities from federal grant money.  

The original case dates back to Jan. 11, 2005. KSP said a 17-year-old girl reported to Louisville Metro Police that she had been kidnapped at gunpoint and raped. According to state police, DNA evidence from the rape kit was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), but "no match was identified."

Now, KSP said there is a match linking Robrico English to the case. 

English is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence stemming from a 2019 first-degree robbery conviction. Court records show he has several convictions dating back to the 1990s. According to the Department of Corrections, in 1996, he was convicted on nine charges including robbery, burglary, fleeing or evading police and more. He's spent the following stints in prison:

  • Dec. 9, 1996 to Feb. 21, 1997
  • April 11, 2001 to April 23, 2004
  • Feb. 11, 2005 to June 5, 2009
  • Jan. 22, 2010 to Dec. 5, 2017
  • Nov. 26, 2019 to present

English was in court on the charges of rape and kidnapping Wednesday, Dec. 11. He's expected back in court in Jan. 2025. 

Grant funding from 2021 from the U.S. Department of Justice allowed KSP and Louisville Metro Police to do additional testing on DNA from this case and others. That funding created the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, or SAKI investigative team, that looks into cold cases. 

For cases from the Louisville area, KSP and LMPD are working together to try and find answers, even if decades have passed. 

"Timeframe you're looking at here is 1975 until 2017," said LMPD Special Victims Unit Administrator Sgt. Samantha Trenholm. 

Trenholm and others with SAKI are focused on cold cases, while another section within LMPD's Special Victims Unit works new cases that come in. 

"The federal government came in on a grant and said, 'Do you have any unsolved sexual assault kits?' Louisville, unfortunately, had 2,401," she said.

She said all of those have now been tested and around 1,400 came back with "insufficient DNA" and around 900 had enough DNA but no known match/suspect. 

"And then, just this month alone, we've had 18 CODIS hits to follow up on," Trenholm said. "We are looking into, right now, I believe five suspected serial offenders. So, two or more assaults attached to that suspect."

But, even for cases with insufficient DNA, Trenholm said there is hope for more testing in the future. She and KSP both also said DNA technology continues to improve. 

"That is supposed to be the next phase if we can get to the next phase, is that they're going to send off other physical evidence," she said, meaning collected evidence outside the sexual assault kit itself such as clothing. "So, you know, you have your insufficient DNA in 1,400 cases but that might have physical evidence that we can send off and get viable DNA, so we're not losing hope."

Outside of these cold cases, Trenholm said this year around 900 cases have been reported to LMPD's Special Victims Unit, compared to around 700 this time last year. She said that includes sex crimes, human trafficking, internet crimes against children, and more.

"I consider our unit to be dealing with the most vulnerable population in Louisville," she said.

Trenholm said anyone with questions about a case can reach out to the Special Victims Unit at 502-574-2278. 

She said no matter how much time has passed on a case, there is "absolute hope."

"We have a tenacious team and we're tracking them down. If we can get viable DNA, we're going to do it," Trenholm said. 

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