MEMPHIS, Tenn. — DNA evidence was used to link a suspect to a 2005 cold case rape of a 17-year-old, District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Thursday.

Orlando Nichols, 35, received a guilty verdict recently on charges of especially aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape, Mulroy said. Court records show he was indicted by a grand jury in 2020 and booked in 2021.

According to the district attorney, Nichols attacked the teenage victim in the parking lot of her apartment, took her to an ATM and forced her to withdraw money. He then drove her car with her in it to another apartment parking lot, where he raped her.

His DNA was found in her sexual assault kit, and later matched to a profile in a database, Mulroy said. 

A WREG investigation in 2010 uncovered the city’s backlog of rape kit evidence. That investigation ultimately prompted the city to test evidence from more than 12,000 cases.