Attorney General Bonta: Kinship DNA Match, Collaborative Law Enforcement Work Leads to Resolution of Cold Case Murders

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued a statement on the conviction of Paul Allen Perez this week for multiple counts of murder and one count of assault on a child under eight with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in death by a jury in Yolo County. The prosecution was handled by the Yolo County District Attorney's Office. The California Department of Justice's Bureau of Forensic Services (BFS) provided assistance to the investigating agencies.

"With this conviction, justice was served for these horrific crimes," said Attorney General Bonta. "This case is a powerful example of how innovative scientific techniques provide a voice for victims of crime. I am incredibly proud of the work our Bureau of Forensic Services put into this case, which provided a pathway to justice. I'm also grateful to the Yolo County District Attorney's Office and all of our law enforcement partners for their dedication to finding justice for these children."

The conviction resolves a cold case that revolved around the murders of five infants between 1992 and 2001. In 2007, an infant's remains were found in the Conway Slough east of Woodland. Though DNA from the remains was routinely searched to identify them, it wasn't until 2017 that Paul Allen Perez was determined to be the infant's biological father when BFS's Missing Persons DNA Program and Cal-DNA Data Bank collaborated to identify a DNA kinship link. Following this lead, local investigators were able to build a case against Perez.

The California Department of Justice Missing Persons DNA Program (MPDP), established in 2001, is responsible for providing DNA testing to address all cases of missing persons and unidentified human remains throughout the state. To this end, the MPDP works with coroners, medical examiners, and law enforcement agencies from all of California's 58 counties to ensure that all cases have been submitted for DNA testing. The MPDP compares DNA from unidentified persons and unidentified human remains with DNA from personal articles belonging to missing persons and DNA from relatives of missing persons with the sole purpose of contributing to the effort of identifying missing persons and bringing closure to their families.