Investigators use technology new to department to nab serial rapist

DeKalb County officials recently announced the arrest of a suspect in multiple Tucker cold cases dating to 2014. 

On Sept. 9, District Attorney Sherry Boston, Police Chief Greg Padrick and other officials with DeKalb’s Cold Case Task Force said 45-year-old Jamal Toliaferro had been linked to previously unsolved crimes. 

Officials said the timeline for the crimes is as follows: 

• In 2014, a masked man bound and sexually assaulted a 54-year-old woman in her Tucker garage. Evidence produced an unknown male DNA profile that was entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). 

• In 2019, a masked, knife-wielding man bound and sexually assaulted a 35-year-old woman at a Tucker apartment complex. Blood collected after she bit his hand yielded a DNA profile that the GBI later matched to the 2014 case. 

• In 2024, a masked man with a box cutter forced a 67-year-old woman into her vehicle, bound and injured her, and tried to withdraw money with her bank cards. DNA from a bag left in the car initially produced no CODIS match. 

• In 2025, the GBI linked the 2024 evidence to the same unidentified man in the earlier cases. The 2019 sample was suitable for forensic investigative genetic genealogy, which uses DNA databases to identify possible relatives and narrow suspects. 

In January 2026, private lab Othram developed a searchable SNP profile from the 2019 blood evidence. According to the National Institutes of Health’s website, an SNP DNA profile is a detailed map of tiny, single-letter differences in a person’s genetic code that helps scientists study identity, health, and family history. Boston said this case marked the first time the task force used a SNP profile to zero in on a suspect. 

Earlier this year, police investigating the fatal stabbing of 30-year-old Kenyon Jeffries on Evelyn Street in Tucker followed a blood trail to a vacant property. 

Officers encountered Toliaferro there on July 17 with wounds consistent with a knife altercation. Evidence connected him to the homicide, and he was charged with malice murder, criminal trespass and obstruction, according to authorities. He remains held without bond at the DeKalb County Jail. 

Similarities among the cold case crimes and the homicide prompted police to alert the Cold Case Task Force. A court-authorized SNP comparison linked him to the 2019 profile, and conventional GBI testing confirmed a match to all three cases, officials said. 

Testing was funded through a federal Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA grant secured in 2023. 

On Sept. 8, 2026, officials with the district attorney’s office announced they obtained warrants related to the three cases, including rape, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, armed robbery and possession of a knife during a felony. 

Now, Boston said the task force is asking other potential victims of similar crimes to come forward. 

“We want to spread the word about this particular arrest in case there are other victims that experienced this same type of M.O. that we’ve seen between all of these crimes,” she said. 

When asked if the task force believes that the suspect may have committed crimes outside of Tucker, and how he was finding his victims, Boston said that it is “unclear.” 

“At the time of his arrest for murder, he was squatting. We’ve heard that he was potentially squatting on an abandoned property (in Tucker) for years,” she said. 

When victims were notified of the arrest, they expressed gratitude, said Boston. “Imagine walking around for decades and that perpetrator hasn’t been identified. This is why this work is so important, because we can start to give survivors a sense of peace and hopefully some closure once we prosecute the case,” she stated. 

Officials are asking the public who may have more information about these cases, or a similar crime, to call the DeKalb County district attorney’s office tip line at 404-371-2444.