A suspect in the murder of three Philadelphia-area women confessed to the slayings after a DNA match identified him as the killer.
Antonio Rodriguez, 22, was linked to the deaths of Elaine Goldberg, Casey Mahoney and Nicole Piacentini thanks to DNA evidence.
Questions surrounded the arrest of Rodriguez because he had no history of violent crimes and the DNA tests that identified him as the main suspect was delayed by a case backlog.
Rodriguez had been jailed on drug charges June 5 and was released on bail Aug. 19, according to prison records. On Oct. 21, Rodriguez pled guilty in the drug case and was paroled and given a year of probation.
This week, Rodriguez was arrested in the sexual assaults and strangling deaths of the three women. Their bodies had been found in November and December.
Police said the delay in matching the DNA in the case occurred because of a backlog in processing. Because of the backlog, it took nearly three months for a DNA sample to be tested after it was taken from a suspect, according to police.
Elected officials are calling for increased funding for DNA testing so that delays like those in the Rodriguez case can be avoided in the future.
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