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A serial rapist who terrorized Albany two decades ago has been charged in the cold case killing of a teenage honor roll student — whom he allegedly snatched off the street as she walked to school in 2005, prosecutors said Friday.
Darious Ashley, 50 — who was already serving a 45-year sentence for rape and kidnapping — was arrested for the murder of 14-year-old Gretchen Perham, Albany County District Attorney Lee Kindlon said at a press conference Friday.
Investigators got a break in the case thanks to improved DNA technology and gumshoe detective work, prosecutors said.
“There have been a lot of advances in technology [since 2005],” Kindlon said. “Our ability to now take DNA samples that existed at the time and perfect them … was really one of the breakthroughs that we had.”
Cuffed in green prison scrubs, Ashley stayed mum at his arraignment Friday. He pleaded not guilty murder, kidnapping, attempted rape and first-degree sexual abuse after being charged Wednesday.
Perham, whose nickname was “Gigi,” was walking to Hackett Middle School on May 13, 2005 when Ashley allegedly tried to rape her — then fatally stabbed her in the chest when she tried to run, according to prosecutors.
Her body was found tossed down an embankment in the city’s South End the same day.
Ashley — whose DNA has linked him to three other knifepoint attacks of young women in the area — quickly became a suspect, but law enforcement apparently didn’t have enough evidence to charge him with Perham’s murder at the time.
Five weeks before Perham’s death, Ashley pulled another 14-year-old girl into his car and put a knife to her throat on Central Avenue in Albany, according to the Albany Times Union. He then took her to an apartment and raped her.
Police didn’t link Ashley to that attack until months later, when his DNA matched evidence taken from the victim.
On June 9, 2005 — less than a month after Perham was killed — Ashley attacked another 14-year-old girl, who was also a Hackett Middle School student, the paper reported.
The girl broke free as he tried to force her at knifepoint into an alley off Myrtle Avenue, the same path Perham often used to walk to school.
He dropped a towel that contained his DNA, but his identity stayed a mystery for two more months, the paper reported.
Ashley then attacked a 22-year-old woman who told police he had forced her into a car at knifepoint and raped her in his car on July 10, 2005.
Ashley drove the woman to her home and she called police after he inexplicably fell asleep there, The Times Union reported. Police found Ashley wearing a condom, and let him go after taking a DNA sample.
He was arrested on charges of kidnapping and rape several days later, and ultimately convicted.
He’s due back in court Feb. 20, and now faces life behind bars.
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