The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox.
A Northern California man has been arrested in connection to multiple cold cases that spanned three jurisdictions in the Bay Area and more than three decades after DNA analysis linked him to the murders, authorities said.
James Ray Gary, 76, from Fairfield, was arrested on Tuesday after DNA matched three cases together, the Solano County Sheriff's Office said in a release on Thursday.
Investigators said they are working to weave together an outline of Gary's whereabouts and contacts spanning from the 1980s to the present. They are also working with other agencies and jurisdictions, they said, to see if DNA matches the suspect to any other unsolved cases.
"The process will now be reconstructing where was this individual from the time in 1980 to the time of his arrest? Who has he come in contact with? Where was he living?" said Sgt. Brandon Hayward, of the Union City Police Department. "Are there outstanding cases that we can reach out to at other police departments where they've had things that are unsolved?"
The first case was in July of 1980.
A woman was found dead inside a home in Union City in Alameda County. It was determined that Latrelle Lindsay, 46, was strangled to death and had blunt force injuries. She had also been the victim of sexual assault.
A DNA sample was later sent to a law enforcement database, but no match was made.
Hayward said he has investigated Lindsay's case and that the department has spoken with her family since Gary's arrest.
"I think there’s surprise and some shock," he said. "As there’s relief that this person is in custody and he wont be able to harm someone else, this is an old wound for these folks and it brings a lot of this back to the surface."
Hayward said the family is asking for privacy.
The second case was in March of 1996.
A body was discovered in the bushes by Caltrans on Highway 780 in Vallejo. Winifred Douglas, 46, was killed in a similar way with asphyxia and blunt force trauma to the head and neck, authorities said.
It wasn't until 2003 that evidence from the Vallejo killing was able to be sent to the California Department of Justice for DNA analysis. Authorities said a single DNA profile was found, but again no match was made.
The Solano County Sheriff's Office was informed in 2012 that the DNA profile from the Vallejo murder matched a piece of evidence from the Union City murder. But again, no match to a suspect was made.
Those two cases were then linked to a sex crime investigation in 2021 by the North Bay Police Department. Authorities were notified the DNA profile matched the two killings this month.
The newest case led them to Gary as a possible suspect.
Detectives were able to collect a DNA sample from him to compare it to the crimes after, authorities said, he was given a breathalyzer test after being pulled over on suspicion of driving while impaired. He was not charged, authorities said.
The Solano County Sheriff's Office was notified on Monday that the DNA sample was a match to all three crimes.
Gary was arrested and booked into Solano County Jail for homicide charges. He is being held without bail. Authorities said additional charges are expected to be filed in connection to the 1980 homicide.
"We are hopeful that this arrest can help bring some closure to the families and friends that have been seeking justice for as much as 40 years," the Solano County Sheriff's Office said.
If you have information relating to the 1996 Solano County homicide, please contact Solano Sheriff Investigations at 707-784-7050. If you have information relating to the 1980 Union City homicide, please contact Union City PD Investigations at 510-675-5227.
Hearst Television participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.