MELROSE, Bronx (WABC) — Jancys Santiago was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for raping a college student in 2001, in the state’s first rape case to be indicted based on genealogy from DNA database.
He will also serve five years post-release supervision and will be required to register as a sex offender.
Santiago was tied to both the 2001 rape of a 21-year-old woman in the Bronx and a May 2000 rape of a 27-year-old woman in Manhattan by the cutting edge technology. He was convicted in the Bronx case in June.
“This decision was more than 20 years in the making,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said.
He was living in Groveland, Florida, when he was arrested, and extradited to New York to face charges in both cases.
In the Bronx case, Santiago allegedly broke into a 21-year-old neighbor’s apartment while she was sleeping in Dec. 2001. He covered his victim’s face, bound her with a wire hanger, and raped her.
“She survived and she is here with us today,” Clark said.
Katy Vicchitto faced Santiago in court on Friday.
“My experience as a survivor of a sexual assault affects every aspect of my life,” she said. “It is like a filter that every new physical and social experience goes through.”
Investigators had no way of knowing that they were looking for the victim’s neighbor in her rape.
The victim’s rape kit generated a donor profile that eventually matched the donor profile from Santiago’s Manhattan rape case, entered in 2005 and logged into the system as “John Doe.”
“Unfortunately, at the time the DNA profile could not be linked to a specifical individual and the identity of the assailant remained unknown for many decades. Over time, technology advanced,” Clark said.
In 2022, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office received a three-year $500,000 grant from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance to reexamine this and other cold cases.
“This process led investigators to only one man. Jancys Santiago,” Clark said.
Santiago was sentenced last December to 20 years in prison, then five years of post-release supervision, in the Manhattan case.
Vicchitto met the victim of that case, Sarah Clark, for the first time.
“This process has been very difficult, but today’s sentence validates forensic science and the power of reporting and advocacy,” Vicchitto said.
The two survivors, tied together by trauma, were united finally by justice and closure.
“I hope this is only the beginning. One down. Hopefully thousands more to go,” Clark said.
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