DNA fails to link suspect

Crime scene, Rivera samples do not match

Web posted October 19, 2000

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By Greg Rickabaugh
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN - Jessica Carpenter's slaying remains unsolved.

Lab results released Wednesday show no DNA match linking slaying suspect Reinaldo J. Rivera to the teen's Aug. 4 killing in Aiken.

Jessica Carpenter FILE

Officials with the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division's laboratory called Aiken police Wednesday, telling local officials that ``the sample taken from Reinaldo Rivera and the sample collected at the Carpenter crime scene do not match,'' according to Capt. Tom Galardi of the Aiken Department of Public Safety.

Investigators are not ruling out Mr. Rivera as a suspect, but without a confession or a DNA match, they have no evidence to tie him to the slaying.

``The DNA results did not include or exclude anybody,'' Capt. Galardi said. ``I would include him and everybody else (as a suspect). ... In my opinion, everybody's a suspect until we make an arrest.''

Capt. Galardi would not comment on where the DNA at the Carpenter crime scene came from, saying that information would compromise the case. But DNA can be gathered from several places, including hair, blood, semen and perspiration, he said.

Judy Carpenter returned to her Crosland Park home Aug. 4 and found her 17-year-old daughter dead. An autopsy showed the cause of death as internal bleeding and a lack of oxygen.

Last week, Richmond County authorities suggested there were similarities in the Carpenter killing and the rape and attempted murder of 18-year-old Chrisilee Barton on Oct. 10 in her Augusta home. Miss Barton identified Mr. Rivera as the attacker.

Mr. Rivera is charged in that attack and in the slayings of Sgt. Marni Glista in September, Tiffaney Shereese Wilson in December and Melissa Faye Dingess in July 1999. He also has been linked to the slaying of Augusta resident Tabitha Leigh Bosdell, whose skeletal remains were found in Columbia County on Saturday.

Unlike the other cases, Capt. Galardi said, Mr. Rivera did not confess to the Carpenter killing.

Still, the mother of the slain teen was crossing her fingers that police had caught her daughter's killer when Mr. Rivera was taken into custody.

``I am shocked, disappointed. I kind of thought we had the person,'' said Mrs. Carpenter, reached Wednesday at her Aiken workplace. ``It would have brought some closure. I wanted to hear closure, so I still don't have that.''

DNA expert Marcia Eisenberg said police must use DNA evidence in the context of each case.

``DNA is a part of the story ...,'' said Dr. Eisenberg, associate vice president for Laboratory Corp. and senior director of a forensic DNA testing laboratory at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. ``Depending on what the evidence was and how it was collected in relevance to the case, not finding a profile that matches the suspect may or may not be important to the case.''

Aiken investigators continue to seek help in the case. Anyone who has not come forth with information regarding the case is urged to call Aiken Public Safety detectives at (803) 642-7620.

Reach Greg Rickabaugh at (803) 279-6895.

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