Suspect Charged In 1987 Sex-Assault Slaying

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA – Authorities Thursday announced an arrest in connection with the sex-assault slaying of a 15-year-old boy whose body was found dumped in a culvert near his Valencia Park home three decades ago.

Russell Taylor, 56, was serving a 25-year sentence in San Quentin State Prison when he was booked this month on suspicion of murdering Dewan Emerson of San Diego, according to police.

Late on the evening of April 28, 1987, the victim told his mother he was stepping outside for a few minutes to talk to someone who had come by their house, San Diego Police Lt. Mike Holden said. The boy never returned home.

The following morning, trolley employees found Dewan's body in a flood- control channel along the 5200 block of Naranja Street. An autopsy determined that he had been bound by the wrists, sexually assaulted and strangled.

An extensive investigation led to no arrests, and the matter eventually went to the department's cold-case file.

Recently, police homicide detectives and investigators with the San Diego County District Attorney's Office re-opened the case, re-interviewing witnesses and family members, and reviewing physical evidence collected immediately after the crime took place.

Advances in forensic technology allowed for the development of a suspect DNA profile that led to the identification of Taylor as the suspected killer. He has since been transferred from the Marin County penitentiary and charged with murder in the teenager's death.

Investigators are still trying to identify someone seen on the night of the slaying, running in the 5100 block of Groveland Drive, a block from where Dewan's body would be found, according to Holden.

That person -- described as black, about 6 feet tall, in his mid-to-late teens and "chubby" -- told a witness he was being chased.

"This (man) has not been identified, and detectives are asking for the public's help in identifying him," the lieutenant said.

By City News Service / Image via Shutterstock