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SERIAL RAPIST
A deceased Smithville man was recently identified as the suspect i n mult iple Bastrop County rape cases that occurred between 1997 and 2005, law enforcement officials said.
Emory Earl McVay, who was 48 when he died in 2010, was identified through advanced DNA testing as the person responsible for three sexual assaults spanning nearly a decade. The investigation involved the Texas Rangers, Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office, Bastrop County District Attorney’s Office and Smithville Police Department.
In August, forensic testing confirmed McVay’s DNA matched evidence collected from assaults reported in 1997, 2004 and 2005. Investigators later learned he had been dead for more than a decade, and no arrests were made.
Officials said McVay had a lengthy criminal history in Central Texas, including multiple burglary convictions.
A collaboration between Bode Technologies, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Austin Crime Laboratory and CODIS, the national Combined DNA Index System, helped lead to the identification.
DNA BREAKTHOUGH
In March 2004, an elderly woman was assaulted in her Bastrop County home after a man broke in while she slept. Investigators collected DNA and submitted it to the CODIS database through the DPS Crime Laboratory Division.
That same year, DPS analysts notified the Texas Rangers the DNA profile matched a 1997 Smithville case in which an elderly woman had also been attacked in her home.
The lab then connected the same suspect DNA to a third sexual assault reported in July 2005 with a similar narrative.
With the DNA connections established, investigators determined a serial rapist was active in Bastrop County.
Over the next several years, investigators collected and compared DNA samples from multiple potential suspects, but none produced a match, according to officials.
In 2021, the Texas Rangers flagged the cold cases as eligible for additional analysis under DPS’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative program.
Bode Technologies began advanced DNA testing and genealogical research using samples from the three linked assaults.
After years of testing, investigators received a positive match identifying McVay as the suspect.
Officials later confirmed his death in 2010.
