ATLANTA — It was a "bittersweet" day on Tuesday for Betty Brown, a woman who was raped at age 13 back in 2004 in East Point.
After years of searching, her accused rapist was finally identified. At the time, authorities found that the DNA evidence collected in her case matched the DNA in the 1995 rape and murder of 14-year-old Nacole Smith in Atlanta. And 26 years after Smith's tragic death, investigators used genealogy and ancestry databases to identify the suspect linked to both cases.
However, Brown and Smith's families will never get to face the man responsible for their pain. Scott Demeester, a homicide detective on the Atlanta Police cold case squad, said the suspect died on Aug. 29, 2021 while in hospice care for liver and kidney failure, just four months before officials made a major breakthrough in the cases and identified the alleged rapist.
"I'm happy that I'm finally here and that he's no longer out there able to do the things to me and Nacole to others," Brown said.
Brown revealed herself to the public for the first time as the second victim while joining Smith's family, Atlanta Police homicide investigators and members of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office while authorities provided details in the case at the police department's headquarters.
During the press conference, Brown said she's been hiding this part of her life trying to avoid living in pain.
"I never thought that I would be here speaking. I don't even know what to say," she said.
Brown, who is now all grown up with children of her own, said she's relieved the cold case is finally solved, but still conflicted because she'll never be able to face him.
"On one hand I want to rise above and not let this control me, but on the other hand, I want his family to suffer because he's not here to suffer. I want them to feel the pain that my family has for years. I want that man that you loved, that you appreciated that you respected, did something so horrible to me and Nacole and I want you to live in that. I want you to wear that like I did -- like I do every day of my life," Brown said as tears ran down her face.
Although Brown said she was frustrated with the time it took to crack the case, she still thanked investigators like Detective Vincent Velazquez. Velazquez said he reopened the cold case on his own back in 2002 and was the man who got the phone call connecting the cases.
"For sticking with me all these years and checking on me to make sure that I'm OK. I appreciate you because I needed that," Brown said.
The Atlanta Police detective worked on the case until the day he retired in 2017, when he passed it on to Deester.
Lt. Ralph Woolfolk with the Atlanta Police Department said cold cases "are not just a number" to law enforcement. He called Smith's case a "testament to the hard work of detectives."
Brown apologized to Smith's mother during the news conference, telling her she was sorry that they had to meet under these circumstances.
Police did not state the suspect's name during the press conference. Woolfolk said investigators wanted the moment to be about the victims, their families, and detectives who dedicated their hard work and time to solving the case.
