Plano and Dallas police partnered to solve a decades-old child sexual assault case, sending a suspect to prison for life.
DALLAS — North Texas police departments partnered to solve a decades-old child sexual assault case, sending a suspect to prison for life, officials said.
Dallas and Plano police detectives investigated the 1991 case in which an 8-year-old child was kidnapped while walking with a friend to a community pool, according to a Dallas Police Department press release.
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Law enforcement developed a DNA profile on the suspect in 2004, officials said. Police matched the DNA to another unsolved child sexual assault case, but the case went cold until nearly a decade later, according to the press release.
In 2023, a Plano detective reached out to a Dallas detective, who decided to work on the case in a partnership focusing on forensic evidence.
“When detectives first started working these cases, the victims had already given up hope they would ever be solved,” the Dallas Police Department said in a press release.
They identified a suspect and began putting all the pieces together.
Nicholas Carney, the suspect police identified, was living in Dallas at the time of the two offenses and drove vehicles that matched descriptions by the children.
Carney was arrested and convicted of the crimes. He is now serving a life sentence in prison.
“Thanks to the outstanding investigative work of Dallas PD’s and Plano PD’s very own Detective DeAngelis and Benzick, the cases were officially put to rest,” the release states.