Aggregated News

A suspect in a 2008 sexual assault of a Santa Cruz coffee-shop worker has been arrested through a relatively new procedure in which offenders are tracked down by searching their relatives' DNA.

Elvis Garcia, 21, of Santa Cruz allegedly attacked a 23-year-old barista at the Kind Grind coffee shop on March 19, 2008. Police said he trapped her in the coffee shop's kitchen, held a knife to her throat and sexually assaulted her.

Garcia was arrested Friday as he worked at a nutritional supply company and is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Garcia was identified through a procedure also known as "familial searching," in which the DNA of convicted felons is compared to evidence found at a crime scene that could implicate a felon's relative. California was the first state to adopt a familial DNA program in 2008.

Garcia is the first suspect to be arrested through this procedure since the "Grim Sleeper" serial murder case spanning three decades in Los Angeles, said state Attorney General Kamala Harris. That suspect, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., was arrested in...