DNA Evidence Cracks Cold-Case Rape 2 Decades Later

A 38-year-old Salinas man has been handed the maximum sentence of 8 years in prison for raping an intellectually disabled teenage girl, thanks to DNA collected 11 years later, Monterey County prosecutors said.

While the offense occurred in 2007, Salvador Zacharias was not identified as the suspect until he was convicted of a different sexual assault in 2018, the District Attorney's Office said Friday.

DNA collected for the 2018 case connected Zacharias to the 2007 rape, which had languished as a cold case, prosecutors said.

The 2007 victim was 14 years old when the attack happened, prosecutors said. She reported that she ran into Zacharias at a park in Salinas. She had previously met Zacharias through mutual friends.

Zacharias told the girl to trust him and get in his car, where the rape took place, prosecutors said. The girl, who returned home afterward, could not identify Zacharias as the perpetrator, according to the district attorney's office.

Authorities collected DNA in a sexual assault examination of the girl, but there was no record of Zacharias' DNA for comparison. With no leads, the case went nowhere.

In 2018, Zacharias was found guilty of sexually assaulting a different victim. As a result of that conviction, his DNA was entered into a national database called CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), prosecutors said.

The Salinas Police Department was subsequently notified that Zacharias matched the DNA profile found in the 2007 attack. This provided the necessary evidence to identify the girl's attacker, according to the district attorney's office.

Zacharias was in custody, serving a prison sentence for the 2018 assault, when he was charged with the 2007 rape, prosecutors said.

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