PORT ANGELES, Wash. — In the summer of 1988, two young girls were sexually assaulted during a sleepover in Port Angeles.
For over thirty years, their attacker remained a mystery, but there has been a break in the case.
The Port Angeles Police Department says it found a DNA match with the help of multiple agencies and funding from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office.
The case
On June 22, 1988, two 11-year-old girls were sleeping in a playhouse attic when a man forced his way inside.
It happened at a home on East 6th Street.
Police say the man blocked their escape, sexually assaulted them, and then ran away.
The girls immediately sought help from a parent, who called the police.
The investigation
Port Angeles Police Department officers and detectives conducted extensive searches, and interviews, and collected the following evidence:
• Photographs
• Latent prints
• Bedding
• An article of clothing believed to belong to the suspect
• Biological samples from sexual assault examinations
Initial resources included:
• A Clallam County Sheriff’s Office bloodhound search
• Neighborhood canvassing and street contacts
• Call-in tips and the creation of a composite sketch of the suspect
Police say they pursued dozens of leads, utilized FBI profiling specialists, and submitted evidence for state and international fingerprint analyses—but didn’t have any luck. The case went cold for decades.
The breakthrough
In 2001, a DNA profile from the suspect was uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) with no matches.
In 2012 the profile was submitted to Interpol to search against profiles in Canada’s database. No matches came back.
In 2023, Port Angeles Police Department Detective Cpl. Erik Smith spoke with Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, founder of Identifiers International, LLC, a leader in forensic genetic genealogy, about using Forensic Genetic Genealogy analysis for cold cases.
In 2024, with funding support from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, the police department sent a suspect DNA sample for advanced testing, and it came back as a match for Kim John Cederleaf of Quilcene, who passed away in 2013.
Cederleaf was cremated after he died, but detectives discovered that a vial containing vitreous humor, which is a clear, gel-like substance that fills the space between the lens and the retina in the eye from his autopsy was preserved at the Bradley-Kosec Funeral Home. Testing confirmed that Cederleaf’s DNA matched the suspect’s profile, solving the case.
KIRO 7 spoke to the funeral home, which said it is standard procedure to take an additional sample of either blood or vitreous humor when a toxicology screen is necessary after someone has died. It’s kept after cremation in case the first sample is damaged, lost, or inconclusive.
KIRO 7 has reached out to learn more about why a toxicology screen was necessary for Cederleaf and is waiting to hear back.
©2024 Cox Media Group
