DNA leads to arrests nearly 40 years after sexual assaults

Almost 40 years after a spate of sexual assault cases, DNA testing has led to the arrests of two men now facing dozens of charges.

Jeffrey Briney, 59, was indicted by a DeKalb County grand jury on multiple counts of rape, kidnapping and aggravated assault. His brother David Briney, 62, was indicted on similar charges and is also linked to decades old sexual assault cases in Cobb and Fulton counties.

“New DNA testing completed in 2023 linked these defendants to seven sexual cold case assaults dating back nearly 40 years,” DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said Wednesday.

The defendants were arrested Feb. 27 and have been denied bond.

Boston said the brothers were linked to a March 28, 1986 sexual assault case in what is now Brookhaven. Investigators say four men pushed their way into an apartment on Briarwood Road where five college students were held at gunpoint and two women were raped.

Sexual assault kits collected following the incident led to the arrests of Jeffrey Briney and David Briney, Boston said.

Months after the Brookhaven incident, two men forced their way into an apartment on Buford Highway where two women were raped and tied up. DNA testing linked Jeffrey Briney to that case, and linked David Briney to cases in Cobb and Fulton, Boston said.

“These matches are a result of an ongoing effort to process previously untested sexual assault evidence,” said Boston, noting there is more work to be done.

In 2016, the Georgia Legislature passed a law requiring all Georgia law enforcement agencies to send stored rape kits to the GBI headquarters for testing. There are more than 7,000 kits dating back to before 1999, which the GBI is working through.

Through a federal grant secured by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council the GBI was able to send about 2,500 untested kits, 74 of which were from DeKalb cases, to private labs for processing in 2023.

“Our team has identified nearly a dozen additional cases that fit the same fact patterns and we know there were others involved in some of these crimes who have not yet been identified,” Boston said. “While we still have a way to go in the criminal justice process, we hope this brings them some comfort and a measure of closure.”

Anyone with information on past cases can call the DeKalb County Cold Case Hotline at 404-371-2444.

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