A Hemet man was sentenced Thursday to 130 years to life in prison for a 1999 kidnapping and rape in Escondido that investigators said they solved through DNA and genealogy — a sleuthing method often linked to solving cold-case murders.
Years after the attack, a family member of Mark Thompson Hunter took a DNA test and uploaded the results to a publicly accessible site — one that law enforcement authorities are expressly allowed to access. In 2020, a cold-case team of investigators took a fresh look at the rape case and used genetic genealogy in hopes of identifying DNA from the assailant. Their efforts led them to Hunter, now 66.
Hunter was arrested two years ago and charged with several felonies, including rape and allegations that he’d kidnapped and tied up the 19-year-old victim, a woman authorities said was lured in when the assailant asked for directions. A Vista Superior Court jury convicted Hunter at trial in October.
Deputy District Attorney Claudia Plascencia said Hunter grew disruptive during Thursday’s sentencing hearing and was removed from Judge Robert Kearney’s courtroom. Before Hunter was taken out of the room, she said, Hunter said he was innocent and would appeal his conviction.
Hunter’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
His conviction marked just the third time that the local District Attorney’s Office has successfully prosecuted a cold sex-crimes case solved by using genetic genealogy.
The idea behind genetic genealogy is to match DNA from a crime scene to a relative who has voluntarily upload their DNA into a public database that police are explicitly allowed to access. Someone as distant as a third cousin might do for a match.
If there’s a partial match, genealogists create a family tree in hopes of putting a name to the unidentified DNA. It’s the same method used to identify the Golden State Killer in 2018. It helps narrow the list of suspects to be pursued with further investigation, such as figuring out if the person is the right approximate age and could have been in the area at the time. Part of the investigation includes securing DNA — which initially can be done surreptitiously, perhaps from discarded trash — from the person who emerges as the key suspect.
Locally, the method has been used to solve several cold-case killings. Many times, the suspect has died by the time they are identified. But sometimes arrests are made. In 2022, a San Diego jury convicted a man in a 1969 case murder case solved by genetic genealogy — the first time a case using that identification method had made it to trial in San Diego County.
Genetic genealogy has also been used in recent years to identify long-dead crime victims, including a woman whose legs were found in an East County trash bin in 2003.
Its not clear how often the method has been used locally to solve cases that do not include a death.
According to Escondido police, the victim in the rape case had been at a gas station on Grand Avenue south of Rose Street on a February evening in 1999 when a stranger asked for directions to a particular motel.
The woman agreed to lead the stranger to the location, driving her own car while he followed in his van. When they reached the area of Valley Parkway and Fig Street, the man motioned for her to pull over in a parking lot. The woman did so, then got out and approached his van.
The man pulled her into the van, tied her up then drove off. He parked and repeatedly raped her. After the ordeal, the assailant dropped the victim at her car and left.
She reported the attack. Investigators collected DNA during a forensic medical exam.
In 2017, the law changed to remove the statute of limitations in forceable sex crimes. The Escondido case occurred in 1999, well before the law changed, but a few factors helped prosecutors leap the hurdle of the statute of limitations that could have barred them from charging someone in the decades-old old rape.
The allegations that the suspect kidnapped and bound the victim each carried a potential of a life sentence, and thus the statute of limitations was removed.
Additionally, the case fit the narrow set of circumstances that removed the limitations, including the specific forceable sex crimes involved coupled with the fact the suspect was charged within a year of being identified through DNA.
