Officials name man suspect in 3 Phoenix cases from 2000

PHOENIX - Authorities in Arizona say a man who lived in several states has been linked by DNA evidence to a murder and armed sexual assault cases 20 years ago in and around Phoenix.

Police and the FBI said Monday that Lance David Ray, now 53, was arrested in October in Bloomington, Indiana, where he was visiting, and is now held at the Maricopa County Jail.

Court records show Ray pleaded not guilty Dec. 4 to eight felony charges and has a Jan. 8 court date. Trial is scheduled in March.

An attorney listed with Ray’s case did not immediately respond to an after-hours message Monday.

In a statement, officials said Ray was identified as the suspect in at least three cases from July and August 2000: the killing of an 18-year-old man and a separate armed sex assault of a 17-year-old at gunpoint, both in Phoenix.

He was also charged in a gunpoint sexual assault of a 14-year-old male in suburban Peoria.

Investigators say they are trying to determine if Ray is responsible for other attacks.

Investigators said he lived in the San Francisco area in the early 1990s before moving to Portland, Oregon in 1993.

Ray lived in Oregon, Washington, and California before moving to Phoenix in 1999. He then moved back to California in 2003 and to Missouri in 2017, according to authorities.