The Reno Police Department says a suspect was arraigned in connection to two cold case sexual assaults from 1998.
Officials said on Thursday, Douglas Potter was arraigned in Washoe County Justice Court on two charges of sexual assault from two investigations reported 23 years ago.
They said Potter was allegedly was a stranger to the victims and was never identified. The cases remained unsolved until new investigative leads became available in January 2019. They became available through links to Potter in the CODIS Database from a retroactive DNA collection from Potter on an unrelated case.
A warrant was issued for his arrest in February this year.
The sexual assault investigations were completed in 1998 and found to be related to the same suspect in 1999.
The new investigative information was funded by the SAKI Grant awarded to the Reno Police Department in 2016 through the Attorney General's Office. The SAKI Grant was established to process evidentiary SART kits that had been backlogged for possible further investigation.
Anyone with additional information on this case is urged to contact the Reno Police Department at (775) 334-2188 or Secret Witness at (775) 322-4900. You will remain anonymous.
