EXTREMELY DISTURBING

California Dad Charged With Decades-Old Murders of His Five Children

A new technique of DNA comparison allowed investigators to identify one of his alleged infant victims last year.

New DNA technology has led to a California father being charged in the decades-old murder cases of his five children. Authorities announced Monday that Paul Perez, 57, had been arrested on charges that he tortured and murdered one-month-old Nikko Lee Perez in 1996, and also said that he had killed four of his other infant children from 1992 to 2001. Nikko’s body was discovered by a fisherman in a waterway in 2007, and a new technique of DNA comparison allowed them to identify the baby in October 2019 after a dozen years of mystery. Perez was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, each with attached special circumstances for torture and lying in wait, The New York Times reports. He was already a convicted sex offender, and was due to be released from Kern Valley State Prison in a matter of days. If convicted of the new murder charges, Perez could reportedly face a penalty of life in prison or the death penalty. Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez said in a statement: “In my 40 years of law enforcement, I cannot think of a case more disturbing than this one.”