Officials to Announce Renewed Effort to Find Man Dubbed the Poto - DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG

Seven years ago FOX 5 first reported a DNA link between a murder in Georgetown and a series of rapes in Montgomery County.

It was a string of assaults that began in the early 90s and ended with the murder of Christine Mirzayan in 1998.

Investigators knew one man was responsible but they had no idea who he was.

Thursday morning top law enforcement officials will come together to announce a renewed effort to find the man now dubbed the "Potomac River Rapist".

D.C. Police have known since at least 2004 that the multiple rapes and the murder of Christine Mirzayan were linked by DNA - matched by Codis, the FBI's national DNA databank - matches that came to an end in 1998.

Police knew the same man carried out the killing and the assaults but they had no idea who he was.

And fourteen years later, they still don't.

So Thursday morning, the U.S. Attorney, the FBI, D.C. Police and Montgomery County Police will jointly announce a new investigative effort to find the man now known as the "Potomac River Rapist."

Anyone living in the Washington area in 1998 will likely remember the murder of Christine Mirzayan, a 28-year-old biologist from California working as a summer intern for the National Research Council.

Mirzayan was attacked as she walked along Canal Road near Georgetown University, dragged into the woods, sexually assaulted and killed by a brutal blow to the head.

Investigators wouldn't know for years to come that the killer was also responsible for terrorizing neighborhoods in Potomac and Bethesda.

DNA recovered from the scenes of more than a half a dozen rapes showed a connection with the murder.

What's baffled investigators ever since, is the fact the DNA trail ended on Canal Road.
Investigators say, since 1998, there have been no other matches.

On Thursday morning, investigators are expected to unveil a website in hopes of putting light on this long dormant case.

On the website will be a composite sketch of a man seen walking behind Christine Mirzayan the night of the murder.
Detectives are hoping to have the same success as the task force investigating the "East Coast Rapist.

When a wave of stories about the man came out earlier this year a tip led police to a man in Connecticut.

Aaron Thomas is now in Virginia facing charges in the rapes of three young girls.

The same cold case team that closed the murders of Joyce Chaing, Chandra Levy and Shaquita Bell are working on the "Potomac River Rapist" case.

The mystery here is why did the DNA trail end in 1998?

Is the man still alive? Did he change his tactics after the murder?

Or is he locked up somewhere and his DNA has somehow not made it into the national DNA databank.