DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announced the indictments of two suspects in connection to multiple decades-old rape cases on Wednesday.
Brothers Jeffrey Briney, 59, and David Briney, 62, were both arrested and are in jail without bond.
Boston said a grand jury indicted Jeffrey on 30 charges and David on 19 charges, including multiple counts of rape, kidnapping, and aggravated assault.
The DA's office notes that "suspects were identified via efforts of the Georgia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Task Force."
The Georgia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Task Force (GASAKI) started in 2018 to help solve cold case sexual assaults by testing kits that have gone untested or assisting with any cold sexual assault case.
This team is a part of a multi-year, multimillion-dollar federal grant under the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.
According to Boston, both rape cases date back to the 1980s.
The first occurred in March of 1986 in an area that today is the city of Brookhaven. There, Boston said the Brineys, along with two other men pushed their way into an apartment on Briarwood Road, held five college students at gunpoint and raped two young women before ransacking the apartment.
The second incident described by Boston happened in October of that same year, when two armed men forced themselves into an apartment on Buford Highway at gunpoint, raped both women who lived there, tied them up, and left them without any valuables. Boston said that this happened about a mile from the first crime scene in March.
She added that one of the sexual assault kits from the October incident matched Jeffrey.
However, Boston said DNA testing concluded last year that David was a suspect in another cold case rape in Cobb County from back in 1987 and four from Fulton County in '86 and '87.
As to why it took so long to bring the men to justice, Boston noted that, prior to 1998, investigators could only test DNA evidence if they had a suspect with whom they could compare the samples. As a result, many of the rape kits from before 1999 went untested and were housed in the GBI.
In 2023, Boston said the GBI could outsource testing of about 2,500 kits, 74 of which were from DeKalb County. That testing, she said, is what brought them to the arrest of both men.
Cold Case Tip Line
Investigators with the DA's office have identified about a dozen other cases that they said fit the same fact pattern. They also believe there were others involved who have not been identified yet. Anyone who believes they have information about the Brineys or potential accomplices can call the Cold Case Tip Line at 404-371-2444.
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