She Got Her Finger Up His Nose. That's All Cops Needed

DNA sample helped Seattle police find Jose Luis Tum-Coronado, 35
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 18, 2018 6:45 PM CDT
Updated Jul 19, 2018 6:45 AM CDT

A woman helped police track down a sexual-assault suspect by literally getting in his face, Q13 Fox reports. Prosecutors in Washington state have charged Jose Luis Tum-Coronado, 35, as he sits in a Georgia prison—all because the unidentified assault survivor stuck her finger up his nose. "My main mission was to stay up on my feet," she says of the 2014 Seattle assault. "All I could do is go for his face, so I was just punching, scratching and, at some point, my hand got up his nose and I was twisting. I was in full defense mode." A DNA sample from her finger enabled detectives to identify Tum-Coronado in Central State Prison, where he's serving two years for armed robbery; his DNA was collected when he was convicted.

Talking to a Seattle police detective, Tum-Coronado all but corroborated the woman's description of being assaulted in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood late on a January evening. "I think that I was drunk and I ran into the female, and I tried to touch her and she grabbed me," he says, per court documents. "I don't how it happened, she could've scratched me or whatever. And that's how my DNA was found on her but if they have my DNA, I would declare myself guilty and face my case." Now charged with indecent liberties and facing a possible $500,000 bail when released from prison, Tum-Coronado asked the detective to tell the woman he's sorry. See surveillance video building up to the assault at KFOR. (More sexual assault stories.)

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