A suspect has finally been arrested in a 22-year-old cold case of sexual assault, thanks, in part, to the work of an artist.
The Huntsville Police Department arrested Patrick Daryl Smith, 51, on Christmas Eve of last year in connection with a brutal rape that occurred in 2001. He has since been indicted on aggravated sexual assault charges, with court records indicating that DNA evidence links him to the crime, according to WFAA.
Lois Gibson, a sketch artist working for the Huntsville PD at the time of the murder, said she remembers this case from February 2001.
“There have been 5,089 cases in my career,” said Gibson, per WFAA. “But that person that did this is sick. If you talk to somebody that went through this … you won’t forget that.”
Gibson speaks with familiarity on the subject, as she herself suffered a near-death experience as the victim of a serial rapist/killer, according to her website. That experience helped fuel her passion for catching criminals.
She helped identify more than 751 criminals during her career as a sketch artist and was dubbed “The World’s Most Successful Forensic Artist” by Guinness World Records.
Despite her success throughout her career, Gibson’s sketch from 2001 did not immediately result in any arrests in the 2021 sexual assault case.
Gibson said that she “wanted it to work so bad,” adding that “it’s really awful not knowing and waiting this long,” according to WFAA.
Following a more than two-decade wait, Gibson finally heard good news about the case earlier this month.
“Out of the blue, 22 years later, I get a text saying they caught this guy,” Gibson said, per WFAA.
After comparing the sketch to a photo of the suspect, Gibson said, “It’s pretty good; the mouth is almost perfect, the hair is almost perfect,” as reported by WFAA.
Now, Gibson is just happy that the victim might receive some closure about the incident.
“I know my witnesses, they have trouble sleeping,” she said, per WFAA. “God bless her. Now, she’s going to sleep good now that he’s caught.”
Smith is currently out on a $250,000 bond and is expected to return to court on October 26.
Closer to home in Dallas, crime has remained consistently high. As of August 28, there have been 493 sexual crimes committed since the start of the year, according to the Dallas Police Department’s crime analytics dashboard.
Rampant crime in the city could be associated with a shortage of police officers. A report from the City indicated there should be three officers for every 1,000 residents, meaning that the police department should have about 4,000 officers to effectively manage crime. Despite the report, Dallas only employs roughly 3,100 officers.
The lack of officers has resulted in rampant crime throughout Downtown Dallas, which has significantly higher crime rates than downtown Fort Worth, where dedicated patrol units manage crime in the area.
