For 34 years, the brutal slayings of a brother and sister in Georgia remained a mystery – until a decades-old rape kit led to an arrest.
Kenneth Perry, 55, was charged this week in the deaths of Pamela Sumpter, 43, and John Sumpter, 46, who were stabbed at the Atlanta suburb apartment on July 15, 1990, according to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
John Sumpter died at the scene. His sister Pamela, who was raped and also stabbed, was rushed to the hospital where a rape kit was collected and male DNA belonging to her attacker was found.
While in the hospital, Pamela gave investigators a detailed description of the man who attacked her and murdered her brother, telling them he was a new acquaintance of her brother and that he was from Detroit, Michigan.
Days later, on August 5, 1990, Pamela died from her injuries. And the case went cold.
Two decades passed without any viable leads.
Then in 2022, investigators sent the rape kit for testing “as part of its continuing initiative to test pre-1999 rape kit evidence,” according to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
By February 2023, a male DNA profile was developed and uploaded to Georgia’s statewide DNA database. But the profile did not match any known offenders on the state level.
A few months later, the district attorney’s office applied for a federal grant for prosecuting cases using DNA and the case was chosen as a good candidate for the grant.
In February 2024, the DNA was uploaded to a national database, and within days, it matched to a 1992 sexual assault case in Detroit, prosecutors said in a recent news release.
The victim in the Detroit case had identified the suspect as her ex-boyfriend, Kenneth Perry, according to the district attorney’s office, who then located the man in Loganville, Georgia.
Matching the DNA , investigators identified Perry as a likely suspect. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit arrested him at his Loganville home. Investigators collected a DNA sample from Perry and it was confirmed that he was the perpetrator in the Sumpter siblings’ murders.
Perry was indicted on two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, rape, four counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated battery, two counts of possession of a knife during the commission of a felony, and theft. He is in custody at the DeKalb County Jail where he is being held without bond.
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“We are here today because of incredible advancements in science and in investigative technology that have made what once seemed to be an unsolvable case, a solid case,” DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The victims’ brother, James Sumpter, also spoke at the news conference.
“It’s been over 30 years since this terrible, evil tragedy happened to my brother and sister,” James Sumpter said.
“We now have closure. I pray that the justice system prevails.”
