SAN ANTONIO – A man was arrested Tuesday in connection with the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl in 1998.
Arthur Quiroga, 55, was taken into custody without incident by the San Antonio Police Department’s Special Victims Unit.
According to Sgt. Washington Moscoso, an SAPD spokesman, the victim was walking on a South Side street on July 21, 1998, when Quiroga used a firearm to abduct and threaten her before the sexual assault.
A Sexual Assault Nurse Examination (SANE) Kit was conducted on the victim at a hospital shortly after the incident.
The case was cold for 26 years until SVU detectives on June 27 received notification of a Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) match linking DNA from the SANE exam to a known sample taken from Quiroga. A new DNA sample was taken from the suspect and sent to a lab for confirmation, where it tested positive as a DNA match to the one collected in 1998, Moscoso said.
Quiroga is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Moscoso said the statute of limitations had not expired in this case.
He said the victim, who is now 41, was surprised and relieved to hear about the arrest and is working with detectives on the case.
Moscoso added the arrest by SAPD is a prime example that “we don’t stop working” on cold cases.