Spit on sidewalk helps officials solve cold case murder, rape of women

After avoiding arrest for six years following his alleged crime, police finally nabbed an accused murderer after he spat on the sidewalk.

Officials linked the DNA left on the street by Geovanni Borjas, 32, to the rape and murder of a teenage girl and a young woman.

The bodies of 17-year-old Michelle Lozano and 22-year-old Bree'Anna Guzman were found by the freeway in Los Angeles in 2011, KTLA reports.

Photo: KTLA

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced the arrest on Tuesday, calling the crimes "horrifying."

"DNA collection at the time of arrest allowed us to connect this monster to the deaths of these two young women," Beck said at a news conference.

Borjas has been charged with two counts of murder and forcible rape and one count of kidnapping, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. He pleaded not guilty in criminal court in downtown L.A.

Lozano vanished around Easter 2011 while taking a walk near her Lincoln Heights home. A day later her body was found near the 5 Freeway at Cesar Chavez Boulevard.

"Michelle was murdered, she was sexually assaulted and she was discarded," Beck told the press.

The day after Christmas that same year, Guzman left her apartment in Lincoln Heights to pick up medication from a nearby pharmacy. She was sexually assaulted and her body was found off the same freeway a month later.

Beck said he thought about the two victims every Easter and Christmas, which marked the anniversary of their deaths.

Over the years, investigators went through "exhaustive protocols" set up by the state Attorney General's Office to request a familial search because the attacker's DNA could not be found in existing state or national criminal databases.

That familial search led to Borjas' father, who had been arrested earlier in his life, about a month ago. Detective work identified Borjas as the possible suspect and police began following him.

As they were doing so, Borjas spat on the sidewalk. The spit was collected and tested, and recently the DNA matched evidence linked to both killings, the chief said.

Borjas was arrested May 25 at his home in Torrance where he lives with his children, Beck said.

He is currently being held without jail and his next court date is June 22.

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