SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- The man accused in a series of rapes dating back to 1995 in San Diego and Riverside Counties pleaded not guilty in court Tuesday.
Christopher VanBuskirk, 46, faces up to 190 years in prison if convicted in the San Diego cases.
VanBuskirk pleaded not guilty to four counts of forcible rape, two counts each of forcible oral copulation and forcible sexual penetration with a foreign object.
VanBuskirk is accused of sexually assaulting four women at knifepoint in San Diego between August 18, 1995, and November 17 of the same year. DNA evidence was collected linking the same person to all four crimes, but investigators were unable to identify a suspect.
Police records detail how one victim was attacked while jogging at night on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. Another victim was attacked while inside her daughter's apartment. The third and fourth victims were both attacked inside their homes.
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In March 2002 and November 2004, two more women were sexually assaulted at knifepoint in Riverside County, but the suspect still wasn’t able to be identified.
That all changed when the San Diego Police Department reached out the FBI Forensic Genetic Genealogy Team in February of 2019.
Using a public access genealogical database, investigators were able to identify VanBuskirk as the suspect in all six cases.
VanBuskirk, who lived in Goodyear, Arizona, was arrested on April 29 and extradited to San Diego on May 6, where he will be charged for the 1995 cases.
Anyone with additional information on the cases is asked to call the San Diego Police Department’s Sex Crimes Unit at 619-531-2210 or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
