Fairfield man, 76, linked by DNA to two cold-case murders, 2021 sex crime
Above: James Ray Gary | Solano County Sheriff’s Office
A 76-year-old Fairfield man has reportedly been arrested in connection to two cold case murders spanning three decades and three police jurisdictions.
James Ray Gary has been identified via DNA evidence to three murders: Latrelle Lindsay (46 at the time) of Union City in 1980 and Winifred Douglas (46) of the Oakland/Berkeley area in 1996.
Lindsay was found dead strangulation and blunt force trauma in her home in July of 1980. She had also been sexually assaulted. A DNA sample was collected but returned no matches at the time, the Sheriff’s Office said.
In March of 1996, Douglas’s body was found in the bushes along Highway 780 near Laurel Street in Vallejo. She had reportedly died of asphyxia and blunt force trauma.
A full DNA profile was developed in 2003, but returned no matches from the FBI’s DNA database. In 2012, investigators identified a match between DNA collected at the Union City murder scene and a piece of evidence collected in the 1996 investigation, although a suspect had yet to be identified.
Earlier this month, July 2022, North Bay Police connected DNA evidence collected from a 2021 sex crime to both the 1980 and 1996 homicides. This led to the identification of a possible suspect, from whom a new DNA sample was then collected. On July 18, the suspect in all three crimes was identified as James Ray Gary.
Gary was arrested Tuesday, July 19, and is being held without bail at the Solano County Jail.
