Suspect in multiple cold case sexual assaults in California and Texas arrested
By Carlos E. Castañeda
A man suspected in a series of cold case sexual assaults in California and Texas was arrested this week near Houston, authorities announced Friday.
Police in Berkeley, Calif., said in a press release that 56-year-old Lashay Durisseau was arrested on Tuesday for crimes involving at least seven victims where he allegedly assaulted the victims or threatened them with a firearm. It’s believed he is responsible for similar crimes spanning four jurisdictions between 1994 and 2008.
Among the cases under investigation are crimes committed in Berkeley and Oakland, Calif., as well as Richmond, Texas, and Beaumont, Texas, police said. Evidence from a 2002 sexual assault in Berkeley was tested in 2015 after the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office obtained a grant to process previously untested rape kits, resulting in a DNA match linking five additional cases, according to police.
Additional funding from the California Department of Justice allowed for further investigation of more than 500 cold sexual assault cases, including the Berkeley case. Berkeley police said investigators worked with the police departments from Oakland, Richmond, and Beaumont, along with the California DOJ and the FBI, which obtained the suspect’s DNA for comparison testing, leading to the issuance of an arrest warrant.
On Monday, Berkeley police detectives traveled to Texas and coordinated with the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office and a Houston-based FBI task force. On Tuesday morning, officers arrested Durisseau near his home in Richmond without incident.
The Berkeley Scanner, which first reported the developments in the case, said Durisseau is facing multiple charges of forcible rape and oral copulation, as well as special allegations of kidnapping during a sex offense, committing sex offenses on separate occasions, and targeting multiple victims in addition to other charges.
