Credit: Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit
Genetic genealogy has helped identify a serial rapist who was committing crimes for at least 40 years of his life, varying his location and even changing his MO as he got older and became plagued with medical issues.
Late last week, Capt. Jack Kennedy, commander of the Tuscaloosa (Alabama) Violent Crimes Unit, announced Elliot Higgins as the suspected perpetrator in two cold case rapes that occurred in 1991 and 2001 in Tuscaloosa, as well as an attempted rape in Colorado.
Higgins, who died in 2014, lived in New Mexico, but originally hailed from Cleveland, Ohio. It was there, in the 1970s, he accumulated an extensive rap sheet of heinous sexual crimes as a young man, including indecent exposure to a minor under 16, assault on a minor, prowling, corruption of a minor, gross sexual imposition and more.
Higgins did jail time in Ohio, but Kennedy says he most likely used the experience to adapt his crimes and evade future detection as he continued to assault women. Higgins was a locally famous musician—a fact that afforded him the opportunity to travel and offend in areas outside his home.
“I believe he learned his lesson and didn't want to repeat [jail time]. He wouldn’t do this near where he lived. He wouldn’t do it against a victim that would recognize him. He had the capability to visit different places, and that’s where he would do this,” said Kennedy. “He was offending as a 20-year-old and he was offending as a 60-year-old. He was trying to assault women even when he was physically handicapped as an old man with medical problems."
3 cases, 13 years
In August 1991, a student at the University of Alabama was violently sexually assaulted. She was approached in the dark by a man we now know was Higgins. He produced a knife, forced her into her vehicle and drove her to another location where he sexually assaulted her for an extended period of time.
Then, in 2001, a realtor in Tuscaloosa was raped by a man posing as a potential home buyer. Once they were inside the house, Higgins confirmed they were alone, before brandishing a knife and assaulting the realtor.
Both cases went cold quickly—until 2004. That year, the Violent Crimes Unit sent DNA from the 2001 rape kit back for testing. Forensic scientists were able to obtain the suspect’s DNA, and as soon as it was entered into CODIS, there was a hit—to a rape in Colorado Springs, Colorado that had occurred in 2004.
The physical description given by the Colorado victim matched that from the 2001 Tuscaloosa case, and the MO was very similar, down to posing as a potential buyer. However, the woman in Colorado fought off her attacker—who had a gun—blooding his nose in the process. That blood was used to create the suspect’s DNA profile.
Although the physical descriptions from the 1991 Tuscaloosa case and the 2001 Tuscaloosa/2004 Colorado case didn’t match, investigators saw the similarities. The MOs didn’t match either, but investigators theorized that was because of the suspect’s ailing health. In 2001, the victim told law enforcement she thought her rapist had medical problems as it appeared he had difficulty getting around. Then, in the 2004 case, he brought a gun instead of his usual knife to the attempted rape—where the victim was able to successfully overpower him. Even so, Tuscaloosa investigators didn’t have DNA linking the 1991 case to the two others.
As technology evolved, Kennedy turned his hopes to genetic genealogy. He sent evidence to Parabon, who was able to genetically establish Higgins as the suspect in the 1991 rape.
"Pursuant to that investigation, and later, we were able to get DNA from his biological relatives and send that to forensic sciences, and they were able to confirm through DNA that he was the suspect and the perpetrator in that," Kennedy said.
The confirmation was beyond 99.999% certain.
“The reason we are releasing this information now is if there are any other victims out there, we want to try to locate them, if they wish, because we want to provide some type of closure and let them know we never gave up on this case. It was always considered important to us,” said Kennedy.
The police captain believes it is extremely likely there are more victims—maybe in Tuscaloosa, but definitely elsewhere—as Higgins traveled due to his music career.
In 1976, he founded the International Horn Competition. It was held every year or every other year at a college in the U.S. In 1991 and 2001, it was held at the University of Alabama the same week of the assaults.
“These types of people are compelled to assault and reoffend. Both times he came [to Tuscaloosa], he didn’t miss. The same with the one in Colorado Springs, he didn’t live there either,” said Kennedy. “We have contacted every police department and jurisdiction that we knew he worked at or this competition was held, and the entire case file has been shared with them so they can look for unsolved sexual assaults.”
Kennedy said the department has only used genetic genealogy twice thus far. Once in this case, and once in a case where it did not pan out. But, he said they plan to assess where the technique has promise for other cold cases.