DNA evidence leads to an arrest

A parolee with previous burglary and narcotics convictions has been arrested in the 1997 sexual assault and strangulation of a 49-year-old woman in Eagle Rock, authorities said Thursday.

Det. Rick Jackson of the Los Angeles Police Department’s cold-case unit said the suspect, Richard Bojorques Jr., 45, was linked to the 9 1/2 -year-old crime through DNA evidence.

Police took Bojorques into custody without incident at his parole agent’s office in Pasadena on Feb. 21.

But his arrest was not announced until Thursday, when Bojorques was arraigned in Los Angeles County Superior Court on a count of murder with special circumstances, which carries the possibility of the death penalty.

Bojorques also was charged with a count of sodomy.

The partly clothed body of Veronica Fuentes Linasero was found on the grounds of an Eagle Rock church on Oct. 19, 1997. Jackson said Bojorques was a frequent visitor to Eagle Rock, where Linasero lived.

Detectives submitted DNA evidence taken from Linasero in 2002, but computer analysis did not reveal a match with Bojorques until last November.

Jackson said the match took that long because Bojorques’ DNA profile apparently had not previously been entered into the police database system.

Then, Jackson said, detectives evaluated further evidence to link the suspect to the crime scene.

They eventually determined that an article of clothing found near the site after the killing contained DNA from both Bojorques and the victim.

“Without the scientific technology that we’ve come to almost take for granted now, this wouldn’t have been solved,” Jackson said, calling the DNA evidence pivotal to the case.

“Years ago,” he added, “this would have never been solved, because there was no connection between the victim and the suspect, and no one called in clues or anything.”

Bojorques is in county jail awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 12.

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