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| Inmate DNA Revives '79 Case |
| By Denver Post |
| Published: 12/16/2002 |
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A delicate strand of DNA has linked a habitual Colorado child molester to the rape and murder of an 8-year-old California girl 23 years ago. Cannie Melinda Bullock was raped, beaten, choked and slain on Aug. 25, 1979, in San Pablo, an East Bay town near Oakland. Veteran investigators, haunted by the case they couldn't crack for more than two decades, had seen their hopes dashed more than once. Now DNA - human genetic evidence unknown to police in 1979 - has led them to Joseph Cordova Jr., a molester twice convicted in Colorado and now doing time at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Crowley. This week, Contra Costa County, Calif., prosecutors charged Cordova with murdering, raping and molesting Cannie. Cordova had a Colorado parole hearing scheduled in January, but now he'll be sent to California to face charges on a no-bail warrant, according to police and court officials. Cordova will also face the death penalty, Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett said. Before the DNA match, Cordova was never among the suspects in the old case, San Pablo Detective Mike von Millanich said. But Cordova was finally linked to the crime by high-tech, scientific detectives after his DNA 'fingerprint' was entered into a national database of convicted felons' genetic profiles. Cordova's match is the latest new lead to come from a computer database of various state prisoners' DNA records. The federal government has pushed for the national system - which has profiled more than 1 million felons so far - to prevent criminals from evading arrest by fleeing across state lines. |
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