The suspect is accused in the kidnapping and sexual assault of an eight-year-old child in Plano on Aug. 15, 1991, police said.
DALLAS — An Oklahoma man was arrested in the 1991 kidnapping and sexual assault of a child in Plano, police announced this week.
Nicholas Ray Carney, 64, faces charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, according to a news release from the Plano Police Department.
Carney was arrested Thursday at his home in Ardmore, Okla., about an hour and a half north of Plano.
Carney is accused in the kidnapping and sexual assault of an eight-year-old child in Plano on Aug. 15, 1991, police said. Two children were walking to a neighborhood pool in the 1700 block of Lake Hill Lane when a man abducted one of the children, officials say. The victim, who survived, was later found injured, five hours later in Garland, police said.
In 2023, Plano police began using evidence from the cold case to conduct genetic genealogy research to connect the crime to Carney, according to the release.
Genetic genealogy is the process of using DNA samples from a crime scene and testing them against genealogy databases, where people have uploaded their DNA.
Carney has also been linked to a similar case from Dallas in 1999, “and we have reason to believe there are more victims,” the police news release said.
An affidavit provided more details about the Plano case, saying that Carney had approached the two children and asked for help finding his dog. Then he told the victim, “You’re coming with me,” and grabbed the child and drove away, the affidavit said.
Carney sexually assaulted the child in his car, according to the affidavit, threatening the child by saying “you’ll never see your family again” if they didn’t do what he said.
About five hours later, the victim was located in Garland after walking up to a house and asking for help, officials say.
Police were able to obtain DNA evidence from the 1991 case, but no suspect was identified. In 2004, the DNA matched to a kidnapping and sexual assault case from Dallas in 1999, officials said. In the Dallas case, the victim was walking home from school with a friend when a man approached them and asked if they saw cats across a fence, the affidavit said.
The man then forced one of the children into his car and sexually assaulted the child, according to the affidavit.
But the suspect remained unknown.
Then, last year, Plano police began investigating the case again by using genetic genealogy to help match DNA from the crime to a potential suspect. In October of this year, police say they received a report from Bode Technology, which had constructed a family tree based on the DNA evidence. The DNA from the crime scene matched to a woman who was in a genealogy database, the affidavit said.
The woman had six sons, including Carney, according to the affidavit. Police learned that Garland police had run Carney’s name in November 1991, a few months after the victim was located in Garland.
Further analysis of documents showed that Carney later lived in Dallas, about a mile from where the 1999 kidnapping happened, the affidavit said. Also, police say they learned that Carney had a prior charge of indecent exposure out of Tulsa, Okla., in 1980.
After tracing Carney to a trailer in Oklahoma in November, the Plano detectives saw him taking out his trash, the affidavit said. The detectives then retrieved the trash bag and sent it to the Bode Technology lab to get it tested for DNA.
The DNA from the trash bag matched the DNA from the Plano sex assault case in 1991, the affidavit said.
Anyone with information about Carney or his suspected link to other criminal activity is asked to call the Plano Police Department tip line at 972-941-2148 or email them at policetips@plano.gov.
Plano police thanked several people and agencies for their help in the investigation: the surviving victim, the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas, the Texas Rangers, Bode Technology, the Dallas Police Department, the Collin County District Attorney’s Office, Plano police Detective A. Benzick, and Plano police crime analyst A. Desmond.