EVERETT — A convicted rapist allegedly linked by genetic evidence to the 1995 slayings of two Snohomish County women will remain behind bars into early 2013 as the courts continue trying to determine whether he is a sexually violent predator.
Danny Ross Giles, 44, was to have faced a September civil trial in King County to determine whether he should be indefinitely detained for sex-offender treatment.
The trial now is set for January. More preparation time was needed, King County prosecutor’s spokesman Dan Donohoe said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Giles remains under investigation by detectives and prosecutors in Snohomish County. Genetic tests allegedly link him to two cold case homicides: the 1995 killing of Patti Berry and the presumed slaying of Tracey Brazzel. She disappeared just weeks before Berry’s body was found 17 years ago.
No charges have been filed, and he has denied any involvement.
Since September, Giles has been locked up at the state’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. A judge ordered him held until a trial determines whether he suffers from mental abnormalities or personality disorders that make him likely to engage in acts of sexual violence.
Prosecutors in July 2011 sought Giles’ detention and treatment as he prepared for release from the Washington State Reformatory. He was serving time for exposing himself to two college-aged women near the University of Washington in 2005. Giles also has convictions for a 1987 rape in Lynnwood, peeping and other offenses against women and girls, starting in his teens and continuing into middle age.
Cold-case detectives with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office questioned Giles about Berry and Brazzel after tests reportedly determined that his DNA was on the women’s cars, and mixed with Berry’s blood, according to court papers.
Both women were last seen alive south of Everett, not far from where Giles was then living.
Brazzel disappeared May 26, 1995, after leaving a south county pub. She was 22. Her car was found days later near her Lynnwood-area apartment. She’s never been located and is presumed dead.
Berry, 26, was reported missing July 31, 1995, after she failed to reach home after working at Honey’s, a nude nightclub that used to be in south Everett. Her body was found about a week later in a wooded area behind the Everett Mall. She died of multiple stab wounds.
Giles wasn’t suspected in either case. A prolific thief, he was wanted on an arrest warrant for property crimes when Brazzel dropped from sight and Berry was killed.
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