Peach Tree Times

Atlanta Police detectives believe they know the man responsible for the 1995 cold case rape and murder of 14-year-old Nacole Smith, and a 2004 East Point sexual assault.

Police told Fox 5 that DNA evidence led to the suspect being identified as Kevin Arnold, 49, who died of liver and kidney failure while in hospice care in August 2021 in Fulton County, authorities said. He had never been arrested for the crimes he is now accused of.

Smith's mother said knowing her daughter's suspected murderer was dead is bittersweet. 

“I never imagined this person would be deceased, so many unanswered questions I had for him that I can never ask and get answers, but I would never say it was closure for me because I will live for this pain for the rest of my life," Acquanellia Smith told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Detective Scott Demeester, who took over the cold case, was a freshman in high school, three months older than Nacole, when she died. He said Nacole's case was constantly mentioned when he came into the Atlanta police homicide unit in 2010.

It took about three years to develop a person of interest through DNA genealogy. Demeester said the FBI forensics lab told police just after Christmas that their person of interest matched the DNA profile in the 1995 murder and 2004 rape.

"I would not have been able to do what I did without a lot of help from a lot of people," Demeester told Fox 5. "I was just glad to be able to make that phone call to Mrs. Smith."

Police said Arnold was born in April 1972 and died in Fulton County where both of his alleged crimes were committed.