Texas police confirmed that they are hunting for a suspect who may be a serial killer after DNA evidence linked otherwise unrelated murders.
‘People committing really violent murders have probably committed something similar to that in the past.’
The Austin Police Department said in a media briefing Wednesday that they were looking for a short Hispanic male who was caught on surveillance video near one of the crime scenes. The person of interest was seen walking with 34-year-old Alyssa Ann Rivera on June 21 before her death. Her remains were later found in an abandoned home on Metcalfe Rd.
Police said that DNA evidence in that case matched with that of a prior unsolved murder case from 2018.
28-year-old Alba Jenisse Aviles left the Caribe Night Club on Felter Lane in Austin on April 14 of that year before she was found murdered, according to police. That location was only three miles away from the location where Rivera’s body was found six years later.
“For it to be so geographically tied is pretty coincidental,” said Sgt. Nathan Sexton of the APD Homicide Department.
Police also believe both victims were sexually assaulted. Sexton said there were “multiple sources” of DNA collected at both crime scenes.
Police believe the man had not been arrested before because his DNA profile was not related to any in their DNA database.
“Typically people people committing really violent murders have probably committed something similar to that in the past, or at least been arrested. And that does not appear to be the case in this case,” said Sexton.
Police are asking for help from the public in order to identify the person of interest caught on surveillance video.
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