‘He will not ever be able to hurt another child’: Single piece of evidence left at crime scene 25 years ago finally cracks cold case

Police in Kansas said a cigarette butt helped solve a case that went cold for almost 25 years. The evidence, along with modern DNA technology, led them to arrest a suspect in two child assault cases from 2000 and 2003.

Police Chief Rich Lockhart held a press conference in Lawrence, Kansas. According to People, he announced that DNA from one cigarette butt led to the arrest of 58-year-old David James Zimbrick. Police arrested him on Monday in Raytown, Missouri.

“It’s been 9,257 days since David James Zimbrick sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl in Naismith Park,” Lockhart said. “He is in a place where he will not ever be able to hurt another child.” Zimbrick faces charges of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, and aggravated indecent liberties with a child. 

The cigarette butt connected two separate cases

These charges come from two different cases in 2000 and 2003. He is being held on $1 million bond in Jackson County, Missouri, and will be moved to Douglas County.

The first incident happened in 2000 when three children were riding bikes in a park. A man offered them $20 to help him find something. One child went with the man while another told a parent. The parent found his daughter, who said a man smoking a cigarette had sexually assaulted her.

Two detectives searched the park and found a cigarette butt that was still burning. One of those detectives was Mike McAtee, who is now retired. Lockhart said without that evidence, police could not have connected the two cases. Similar breakthroughs have occurred in other cold cases, like how a father’s persistence solved his daughter’s 40-year-old murder.

The second incident happened in May 2003 at the same park. Two ten-year-old boys were riding bikes when a man offered them $20 to help find something. The boys searched in different directions, and the man allegedly assaulted one of them. Police collected DNA evidence in the 2003 case. In 2016, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation used a DNA system and found that the cigarette butt linked both cases.

Years later, officials used genetic genealogy technology to find the suspect’s mother and then identified Zimbrick himself. DNA technology has helped crack several historic mysteries, including whether genetic evidence finally identified Jack the Ripper. 

Lockhart said three other cases have similar descriptions but no physical evidence connects them to Zimbrick yet. He hopes the arrest brings comfort to the survivors and may help find other victims.