BEEBE, AR - DNA evidence in a Beebe teen sex assault case leads to a dead end for police. Only on FOX16, the mother of one of the victims says this latest development is the last thing she wanted to hear.
It's new information into the attack on two Beebe teen girls but it doesn't solve a crime.
"It's very frustrating, very frustrating,” officer Josh Middleton with Beebe Police says. “But we're still working on it."
The girls, ages 13 and 15,
were walking home on Fir Street in April when two men ran at them from behind a church, pushing both into a nearby ditch and raping one of them. The other girl fought off her attacker.
The state crime lab tested DNA evidence, detectives just got the results.
"It eliminated the suspects we'd previously talked to,” Middleton says. “At this time we don't have any suspects but we're still actively investigating the case."
The mother of one of the victims, whose name we are not using to protect the identity of her daughter, tells FOX16 she's trying to remain patient.
"I was kind of shocked given all the information that we've had,” she says. "If they've done it once, they'll do it again. Or they have already done it before this, they just haven't been caught."
She says her daughter is doing better now, trying to move forward after her brutal attack. But it's an unsolved crime people in this white county town don't have an answer to.
"I think it's made them more aware, especially the ones with children,” she says. “I know people who will not let their children walk around anymore the way they used to."
And that mom believes the men responsible for the attack on her daughter and her friend are still in the Beebe area.
Beebe detectives say the DNA results were tested against possible suspects but had no match.
Also, evidence recovered doesn't match anyone in the DNA database maintained by the state.
