TORONTO -- DNA evidence and two composite sketches of a suspect have Toronto police hoping they can crack two cold cases in two different cities.
Det. Ali Ansari of the cold case section of the Toronto police sex crimes unit says DNA evidence shows the same suspect is linked to an unsolved 1992 sexual assault against a woman in Toronto and another in Vancouver in 1985.
Ansari says the suspect has never been identified but they are offering a $50,000 reward for information that helps identify, arrest and convict the person responsible.
Composite sketches of the suspect, which were done with the help of the victims at the time of the crimes, have also been released by police.
Ansari says while years have gone by since the crimes, police are not giving up on solving them.
He's calling the reward money "the icing on the cake."
The Toronto incident happened on June 10, 1992, when police say a 21-year-old woman was walking home at about 11:30 p.m.
It's alleged a man followed her into her apartment building and then into an elevator where he brandished a handgun, forced her into a stairwell and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint before fleeing.
Seven years earlier, on May 3, 1985, police say a 34-year-old woman was in a Vancouver parking garage when it's alleged a man approached her and then sexually assaulted her in a stairwell.
While both cases were unsolved, Ansari says new forensic DNA technology introduced in 2001 has allowed police to check cold cases and in April 2005, evidence collected from the Toronto case was linked to the cold case from Vancouver.
"Forensic DNA analysis linked the cases and has conclusively shown that the same offender is responsible for both crimes," Ansari said.
