Boone County obtains conviction after SAFE kit DNA comparison in 2001 case

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that the Boone County District Attorney's Office successfully obtained a sexual assault conviction against Lonny Ray Caldwell. Caldwell pleaded guilty after the Attorney General's Office SAFE Kit Initiative (AGO) obtained a CODIS hit that matched his DNA.

“This is a significant achievement for our SAFE Kit initiative. I am proud of my team of professionals who are committed to achieving real results for victims of sexual assault,” said Attorney General Bailey. “We will continue to work with local law enforcement and prosecutors to achieve justice for victims.”

Court records show that on April 8, 2001, Caldwell, who was 30 at the time, drugged a 17-year-old victim before sexually assaulting her. The Boone County Sheriff's Office conducted the investigation, and the sex crime kit was picked up at the hospital the day of the incident.

As part of its efforts to address the backlog of untested sex offender kits in Missouri, Attorney General Bailey's SAFE Kit Team sent the kit for testing on March 4, 2022. Two months later, the lab confirmed that the DNA matched Caldwell. The Attorney General's Office immediately notified the Bureau of Investigation and the Boone County District Attorney.

Caldwell pleaded guilty to sexual assault four days before his trial date before Judge Kevin M. Crane in Boone County District Court. He was sentenced to five years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

The SAFE Kit Initiative team sent the final batch of untested sex crime kits to the lab for testing on March 22, 2024. To date, the cleared SAFE kit backlog has resulted in 1,175 CODIS uploads, 557 CODIS hits, four felony convictions, and seven pending court cases scheduled for trial or for which arrest warrants have been issued. This milestone was achieved through the collaboration and support of Missouri's law enforcement and hospital partners.

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