DNA On Spoon Leads To Arrest In 1997 Sexual Assaults, Police Say

LIVERMORE, CA — A 60-year-old longtime Livermore resident has been arrested on suspicion of two violent sexual assaults that occurred more than 20 years ago and police believe he may have other victims, it was announced Monday by the Livermore Police Department.

In conjunction with the Union City Police Department and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Livermore police took Gregory Paul Vien into custody Nov. 5. He was booked in Dublin's Santa Rita jail and is being held without bail, jail records show.

Vien was booked on suspicion of sexual penetration by a foreign object with force, forced oral copulation, false imprisonment and kidnapping, according to the records.

"There are three additional unsolved brutal sexual assaults that occurred in Livermore between 1995-1997," the LPD said in a released statement. "These unsolved cases have similar characteristics to those perpetrated by Gregory Vien. At this point, we believe Gregory Vien may be a suspect in those cases and we continue to investigate."

In May 1997, a 41-year old woman was walking home from the Union City BART station when she was attacked by an unknown man who dragged her to a nearby field and violently sexually assaulted her, the LPD said. The man left biological fluid at the scene, which was collected and preserved by Union City Police. The suspect’s DNA was then uploaded into a DNA database hoping for a suspect identification.

Then in September 1997, a 22-year-old woman was attacked and sexually assaulted while she was on an evening walk at Livermore High School, the LPD said. The suspect — a man the woman did not know — left DNA evidence behind, which was collected and uploaded into a DNA database.

In 1998 a DNA link was made between the two cases, but identifying the person who belonged to that DNA would take more than two decades.

In July 2019, LPD detectives began to review the 1997 Livermore case. They submitted the DNA evidence to a genetic laboratory for a chromosomal DNA profile.

"Based on that profile, a genetic consultant was able to provide an investigative lead for the suspect, which detectives immediately began to follow-up on," the LPD reported.

Detectives were led to Vien, and they began conducting surveillance him. They eventually collected a plastic spoon he had used. DNA from the utensil was submitted to the Department of Justice’s DNA database for comparison to the evidence collected from both the 1997 Livermore and Union City sexual assaults, and a match was made, the LPD said.

The Livermore Police Department and the partner agencies involved in the Vien case are asking the public’s assistance and encouraging anyone who might have information to contact the LPD at at (925) 371-4790. In addition to Livermore, Vien also frequented Union City, Fremont, Hayward, San Lorenzo and San Ramon in the mid to late 1990s, according to the LPD.

Vien is due in court Wednesday morning for a plea hearing, according to jail records.