For more than 30 years, all the leads in a Cobb County sexual assault case never led to an arrest, authorities said. But thanks to a sexual assault kit, a Marietta man has finally been put behind bars.
Christopher Milton, 55, has been charged with kidnapping, rape and aggravated assault in the 1990 incident, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
The DA’s Office said the case was reignited when an assault kit was tested by the GBI. The evidence sample was placed in a database to determine if a potential suspect could be matched to it. Milton ended up matching the evidence, officials said.
Soon after, investigator Lisa Bishop reopened the 31-year-old case and collected additional information to provide sufficient evidence to secure an arrest warrant. Milton was taken into custody by Cobb deputies shortly after the warrant was issued, the DA’s Office said.
In August, a 24-year-old DeKalb County cold case was closed when Courtney Howe pleaded guilty to charges of rape, aggravated sodomy, kidnapping, aggravated assault, burglary and theft by taking, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
In 1997, officials said Howe entered a woman’s home in the middle of the night. When the victim went to the kitchen, she came face-to-face with Howe, who appeared to be wielding a knife. Authorities said he tied the victim’s wrists and assaulted her in her bedroom.
In May 2020, Howe was identified as a suspect in the case after a positive DNA match to the sexual assault kit collected at the time of the incident. Following his guilty plea, Howe was sentenced to 20 years, with 15 to serve in prison.
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