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State Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced today that a DNA match made at the California Department of Justice DNA Laboratory in Berkeley has fingered a suspect in a 1984 sexual assault and murder. Lockyer said David James McIntosh, a convicted sex offender currently in Folsom Prison on parole violations, will be charged tomorrow in the sexual assault and murder of 13-year-old Heidi Fredette in Tehama County.  

McIntosh was identified as a suspect in Fredette's death as the result of a search of the Department of Justice's Convicted Felon Databank in January. Lockyer called the match a “cold hit,” meaning McIntosh had not been connected with the unsolved crime prior to the search. State law requires that blood and saliva samples be taken from those convicted of certain violent crimes and sexual assaults for the use of law enforcement agencies.  

Although there is currently a backlog of unanalyzed samples, the databank in Berkeley is expected to have analyzed and stored around 200,000 DNA profiles of convicted felons by July. 

Lockyer said a total of 29 convicted felons have been identified as suspects in unsolved crimes due to database searches since they began in 1994. Among those recently identified is Perry Tatmon, who was charged last week with the January 2000 rape of a developmentally disabled woman in Santa Rosa. 

Lockyer said he is sponsoring legislation this year seeking to expand the list of criminal convictions in which the collection of DNA samples can be ordered.