An Edmonton Police Service logo is shown at a press conference in Edmonto on Oct. 2, 2017. Edmonton police say that they have charged a man in a sexual assault case from 1981 involving a 15-year-old girl. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Edmonton police say they have charged a man in a sexual assault case from 1981 involving a 15-year-old girl.
Police say the girl was walking home across a school field in northeast Edmonton when she was grabbed, dragged and sexually assaulted.
They say the case went unsolved for decades and was assigned to the Historical Crimes Unit in 2018.
Police say they used investigative genetic genealogy, which compares a crime scene DNA sample with profiles in public commercial databases.
Investigators were able to combine information about relatives of the suspect with other existing evidence to identify Guy Greffard of Kelvington, Sask., who is now 65 years old, as the suspect.
Police say Greffard was arrested on Oct. 27 and is being charged with rape and acts of gross indecency as defined in the 1981 Criminal Code.
“Our team is continuously exploring current technologies and innovative ways to solve historical files,” Det. Kevin Harrison with Edmonton police’s Historical Crimes Unit said in a news release Tuesday.
“We are pleased that we were able to make an arrest in this traumatic assault and are hopeful this will bring some closure for the survivor after all these years.”
Edmonton police said it has used investigative genetic genealogy on five cases, but this is the only one that concluded with charges being laid.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2022.
