Authorities book homicide suspect in 2 cold cases

FAIRFIELD >> Hoping to bring “closure” to the families of two women slain more than a quarter century ago in Union City and Vallejo, investigators used DNA evidence to arrest a 76-year-old Fairfield man in connection with those killings.

The Solano County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Thursday that deputies have arrested James Ray Gary in connection with the 1980 killing of 46-yearold Latrelle Lindsay in her Union City home and the 1996 slaying of another 46-year-old woman, Winifred Douglas, whose body was found dumped in bushes along Interstate 780 in Vallejo.

Gary was arrested Tuesday, one day after investigators received word that a DNA sample they obtained from him matched DNA evidence gathered from both homicides, the release said. Gary's DNA also matched a sexual assault that was under investigation in an unnamed North Bay city in 2021.

“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 sheriff's office said in a statement.

Lindsay was in her home when she died from blunt force injuries and asphyxia due to strangulation.

No suspects were identified at the time, but evidence from the crime scene was preserved. This was six years before what was then called DNA fingerprinting first was used in a criminal investigation in the United Kingdom.

Solano County detectives also have long been unable to identify a suspect in the 1996 killing of Douglas, whose body was found by Caltrans workers along I-780 near Laurel Street in Vallejo, the release said. Douglas, from the Oakland/Berkeley area, similarly died from asphyxia and blunt force trauma to the head and neck.

In 2003, evidence from Douglas' death was sent to the state Department of Justice for DNA analysis. A single DNA profile was found, but no match was made when it was loaded into the FBI's DNA database. Nine years later, sheriff's investigators were told that the DNA profile from Douglas' killing matched a piece of evidence from the Union City homicide.

But again, no suspect was identified — not until earlier this month when investigators from Solano County and Union City were told that the DNA profiles from their cases matched that of a sex crime being investigated in a North Bay city. The news release didn't say which North Bay police department was handling the sexual assault, but it said that detectives there had identified Gary as a suspect.

Detectives there also were able to obtain a DNA sample from Gary, which was submitted for analysis. After learning that Gary's DNA matched DNA from all three crimes, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Police also searched his home before booking him into the Solano County jail on one count of homicide. But additional charges, including in the death of Lindsay, are expected, the release said.