 for joining us today as we share some very noteworthy developments in a particular sexual assault case that occurred here in Durham in 2015. As I have said in recent briefings, one of the Durham Police Department's priorities is to seek justice and closure for all victims of sexual assault. Our team of investigators and forensics personnel have been very focused in this regard and have worked with deliberate speed to ensure the testing of every sexual assault kit within our purview. We are grateful to our local and state partners who have provided additional support in this effort. In the spring of 2018, the Durham Police Department began sending cold case rape kits to the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory for testing. Last fall, we also received a three-year, $1 million sexual assault kit initiative grant to provide additional resources for investigating these cold cases. As a result of this grant, we have assigned two investigators and one supervisor dedicated to the investigation of cold case assaults. Their hard work and commitment to these unsolved crimes has resulted in several arrests, including the one we are here to discuss today. We are grateful to our Attorney General, Josh Stein, whose voice has been loud and clear regarding this commitment to providing all the resources necessary to aid local law enforcement in the resolution of these cases. We are also working very closely with the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory and our own Durham County District Attorney, Sadana D. Berry, to ensure the timely processing of evidence and the eventual prosecution of identified offenders. Lieutenant Vaughn, who is the commander of the cold case sexual assault investigations, will now discuss the recent arrests and other work that has been done by the Durham Police Department cold case investigators. Lieutenant Vaughn. Thank you, Chief Davis. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. First, I'd like to speak about this investigation that resulted into arrest. On November 11th of 2015, around 6 p.m., the victim was walking home along West Trinity Avenue, headed towards the Ellaby Creek Trail entrance. The victim noticed a man walking in line behind her as she entered into the access along West Trinity Avenue. As the victim was walking along the trail, she was grabbed from behind and the attacker wrapped his arm around her neck. A physical struggle between the victim and the attacker ensued until the victim lost consciousness. After a period of time, the victim regained consciousness and area residents assisted the victim and called 911. As time went by on September 9th of 2019, the Durham Police Department cold case sexual assault investigations received a match of DNA profile obtained from the sexual assault evidence collection kit to a DNA profile from the combined DNA indexing system, also known as the CODIS database. The CODIS profile was linked to 32-year-old Emanuel DeWayne Birch. It was revealed that Emanuel Birch appeared to be homeless and resided in the Durham Chapel Hill Carborel area. Emanuel Birch had multiple encounters with law enforcement, especially in the city of Durham. On October 9th of 2019, cold case investigations located Emanuel Birch in the Durham and collected a known DNA sample via court-issued search warrant. Emanuel Birch's known DNA sample was submitted to the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory for comparison of DNA profile obtained from the evidence collection kit. On January 16th of this year, cold case sexual assault investigations received results of that comparison, testing from the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory. The known DNA sample from Emanuel Birch was confirmed to be a match from the DNA profile from the sexual assault evidence collection kit. The rest warps were obtained for attempted first-degree murder and first-degree sex offense. Where secured in Emanuel Birch was arrested on January 22nd of this year in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He's currently still in the Durham County jail in a $500,000 bond. At this time, our cold case sexual assault investigation is working closely with our crime analysis unit and also area of jurisdictions for the involvement of Mr. Birch to see if there are any other cases we can link or have missed with this individual. I'd also like to spend some time with the Durham PD cold case sexual assault investigation has been working very closely with the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory since the spring of 2018, submitting our untested sexual assault evidence collection kits. Of the 294 evidence kits sent to outsourcing at this time, 65 have resulted in CODIS eligible DNA profiles. 47 CODIS hits have been obtained. In addition to the arrest of Emanuel Birch, five additional cold case investigations have resulted in arrest, and we also have five additional cases that are in the comparison testing phase, which are a direct result of the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory's outsourcing initiative. In addition, the receipt of our SOC, or the sexual assault kit initiative federal grant that Chief Davis spoke of, our cold case sexual assault investigation has grown from one assigned investigator to two full-time investigators. We are currently in the process of hiring a full-time victim's advocate and awaiting the hire of a full-time assistant district attorney through the Durham County District Attorney's Office. These two positions will work directly with our cold case sexual assault investigations and a collaborative effort to bring closure to unresolved investigations related to sexual assault. And finally, I'd like to thank Charlene Reese and also all the advocates for the Durham Crisis Response Center who have been working to connect victims with our cold case sexual assault investigators and provide any needed emotional supports throughout the investigative process. This time I turn it to Madam D. Berry. Thank you. Thank you, Lieutenant Vaughn. Since I took office on January 1st of 2019, the Durham District Attorney's Office has been focused on those violent and serious crimes that keep us unsafe. A big part of that has been working with DPD on sexual assault kits and with the cold case sexual assault investigative unit. We are proud to say that our office and DPD meet weekly to discuss hits on these sexual assault cases and to do whatever DPD needs us to do to help them build cases and charge cases. In this instance, Assistant District Attorney Lindsey Spain has worked closely with investigators here at DPD, both pre-charge. That was before the defendant was charged and has been working with them throughout the process to make sure that he has been indicted and that he has a bond that keeps the rest of Durham County safe. We want to really thank DPD and Attorney General Stein for all the help that they have been given to us in prosecuting these most serious and violent cases. We could not do this without that sake grant. Attorney General Stein's continued commitment to helping us clear the most serious cases is why we are standing here in front of you today. In our office, we take homicides very seriously and we also take sexual assault very seriously because we believe in those crimes, we have a living victim who has experienced tremendous violence. And we want those people to see justice done. Thank you. I'd like to introduce Attorney General Stein. Thank you, District Attorney DeBerry. Chief Davis, Lieutenant Vaughn. I want to thank everyone for being here. Five years ago, while a Durham woman was walking home from work, a man came from behind her and violently and sexually assaulted her. Today, I am pleased to join those here in announcing the arrest of the man who we believe committed this crime. I want to start with three messages. First, to victims of sexual assault in North Carolina. This state cares about you and we will do everything in our power to bring justice to you. To the rapists, we want to be very clear that no matter how long ago you committed your crime, we will never stop coming for you. And to the public, we want you to know how we want to get violent, dangerous people off the streets where they can harm no one else. Chief Davis, Lieutenant Vaughn, everyone involved in this case, I want to congratulate you and thank you for your diligent and good work. Today underscores the work that you do day in, day out. Never give up on a case, always fight for justice. Sometimes justice is swift and other times it takes a little longer. Today, after five years, the system is moving this case forward. I want to thank the state crime lab, the folks on my team, Director Vanessa Martinucci is here with me today. I want to thank Courtney Cowan and Michelle Hannon, two scientists who worked hand in hand with Durham PD to get the evidence back so that justice could be served. DNA is an incredibly powerful tool. It can link a suspect to a crime and it can exonerate the innocent. Today, thanks to determined law enforcement officers, hardworking forensic scientists and a brave survivor, DNA has enabled Durham PD to make an arrest. I want to take a moment just to talk about the state of untested sexual assault kits in North Carolina more broadly. As you all know, a couple of years ago, we did a count discovering that there were about 15,000 untested sexual assault kits sitting on the shelves of local law enforcement all across this state. Today's news underscores an important truth that if we do what we should, which is to test these old kits, we will get hits, we will solve crimes, and we will make arrests. We are making progress, but there is more work to be done. In the triangle alone, agencies have outsourced 588 kits since we've been at this. Yet, there are still more than 3,350 kits that have not yet been tested. We have to keep going. We've secured the money to test these kits through grants and through legislative appropriations, and the state crime lab stands ready to work with all law enforcement agencies here in the triangle, but across the state to test these kits so that we can reopen cases, conduct investigations, make arrests, and make communities safer. We have got to test these kits. Doing so will put more criminals behind bars where they cannot hurt anyone else. I want to congratulate again, Chief Davis Durham Police Department. I think it was last June we were here where we announced your renewed commitment to delivering justice for victims of sexual assault. District Attorney DeBarry, you were there, and this is the result of that work. What you all, what we're announcing today is the result of dedicated public servants doing the job that we want them to do and that we are proud that they are doing. I am pleased to be with you all today, and we will be happy to take any questions. Thank you. As said earlier, there would have been an arrest earlier, and I imagine that is frustrating for all of you to know that this was sitting there just waiting. Can you speak to that and just explain why there was that weight and more about what you all are doing to prevent that weight in the future? I think much of it has been said in earlier statements and also in the commitment that has been made by our Attorney General to make sure that we have the resources that we need in order to prosecute, well, process and prosecute individuals that commit these crimes. Unfortunately, in years past, the resources have not been there, and with the recent grant, the funding, a focus, a collaborative focus on ensuring that kits are tested in a timely fashion within 48 hours. They're sent off to a crime lab that can test them and not have them sitting around. We're just excited that we're at that place right now. The other thing about the evidence and ensuring that we do our job in just processing evidence and DNA evidence, even if it's not related to a sexual assault, because that evidence sometimes later on down the road can match in a subsequent crime. So it was fortunate that we were able to get a coldest hit on an individual who had a brush with the system at some time in the past, and that was how we were able to make that match. Yes. I think it's fair to say that the entire criminal justice system, the entire state of North Carolina should have done a better job in recent decades. But when it comes to pointing fingers, the only finger I am interested in pointing is the one going forward. We want to fix what was not done properly in the past, and we championed a bill called the Survivor Act this year. That got us the resources, $6 million that we can use to outsource the kits not only here in Durham, but in Raleigh, in Orange County, all across the state of North Carolina. And there was an important requirement in that bill that said that anytime a law enforcement agency in North Carolina receives a reported sexual assault with a kit, within 45 days they have to send it to an accredited lab. Because we want to eliminate the backlog once and for all and ensure that it never develops in the state again. Any other questions? I know you kind of talked a little bit about it, but just kind of tell us more about the initiatives that are underway. Well, and I think Lieutenant Vaughn mentioned what we have done in-house, the dedicated resources, to ensure that there is a unit that is not just cold case investigations, it's specifically cold case sexual assault investigations. And we have not been in a place in the past where we could put those types of personnel resources to this particular issue. Not just our resources, but also to have a grant that actually allows us to hire an ADA to work specifically with these particular cases, also to have an additional person on staff to help analyze our forensic staff to ensure that cases are forwarded on to the state crime lab. So in-house we have worked really, really hard to just change what that process looks like and really close the window and ensure that evidence doesn't ever get stale again. And we are responding in a very timely manner to ensure justice for our victims of crimes. When you say that the resources weren't there before, are you talking about the funding wasn't there? Or what exactly wasn't there before to make this happen? Not necessarily funding, but in the past during police department from time to time would have to send sexual assault kits to like private laboratories because we weren't able to just inundate the state laboratory. We weren't the only agency that the state laboratory process kits for. So the state laboratory has had a commitment to increase their staffing, increase their examiners and take in, take in more cases so that we can meet this new state legislation as well to ensure that those cases that are sent within the 45 days are processed within that period too. Hopefully that helps. And how many kits remain untested statewide and then for Durham if you know? I think that number might, Lieutenant Bond, do you have any information on that? Currently of about the 1700 and I'm not gonna give you exact numbers, say we're probably in the neighborhood about 1400 more because at a gizzard take I say that as a reason because we do find where other jurisdictions cause we have a Duke University being a major hospital. Sometimes people will come there for the sexual assault exams. So we're working through that. So probably around about 1400 is a ballpark I'm comfortable with saying with right now. In the state? In Durham. Now the state that will have to refer to attorney general. We also received a Sackie grant so that we could go to every single law enforcement agency in North Carolina and certify exactly how many kits there are in each agency's control. And we're in that process. We think the ballpark because we haven't finished the specific count there had been 15,000. We have outsourced under our watch about 1200 over the last year. And a few communities like Charlotte, Greenville and Fayville they had secured their own Sackie grant just like Durham did and have begun outsourcing. So it's really ballpark but I would guess between 10,000, 10 to 12,000. We're not satisfied with this lack of precision. And that's why we have an entire team about a dozen people dedicated to cover the entire state and actually physically go count. And then one thing that we did last year was we created a tracking system because it's absolutely unacceptable for the system to not know how many kits there are or where they are. So one thing I did is I went to the legislature and said, would you authorize my creating a tracking system at the state crime lab? And we've done that. So that since October, 2018 anytime there is a new sexual assault they gets a barcode. And that barcode is given to every participant in the criminal justice system and to the victim, him or herself. So that the victim is no longer wondering I gave over this evidence what happened. And if you talk to victims there are people who gave evidence two, three years ago and they don't have any idea what's happened to it and that's not appropriate. So with the tracking system we're going back and adding all the old kits that weren't in the tracking system into it. So we will have a number at some point we're just not done with the process. The fact is we raised $3 million in grant funds. We raised $6 million from the legislature. I want to thank all the legislators who supported that. We have the money to outsource this kit. There are some capacity issues with the private labs because what's going on in North Carolina is not unique. Other states are doing similar exercises. And so there's only so much capacity each lab has to do to take the kits but they're not at capacity yet. And that's why I'm going to every law enforcement agency I possibly can. The kits are under their custody, not the state crime labs. And I'm just saying we've got staff. We will come and sit with you. We will help you get those sent off to a private lab so that they can do exactly what Durham is in the process of doing. I know we've been calling this, or the news release calls this a sexual assault. I just wanted to clarify, was this a rape? This was a sexual assault. As far as the specifics of the case itself, I believe this one was considered a sexual assault. Yes, sexual assault. Any other questions? If there aren't, thank you all for being here today and the Durham Police Department remains committed and so happy to have our DA and our Attorney General here to share in this news and we will continue to work and be transparent as developments come in these various cases. Thank you.