The case was old, but police never stopped hoping they'd solve it. And now, courtesy of a "cold" DNA hit, they've charged a 39-year-old Lorton man with two cold cases from 2003 and 2004.
He is Michael Andrew Viveiros of 9100 block of Ashland Woods Lane, and the incident occurred Nov. 16, 2003. Fairfax County Police Det. Shawn Perkins presented details in a June 25, 2007 affidavit for a warrant to obtain a DNA sample from Viveiros' cheek lining.
The 2003 case — indecent exposure and peeping into an occupied dwelling — occurred in the 6300 block of Field Flower Trail in Centre Ridge. According to police, an unknown white male stood on a chair outside a home and exposed himself to a 17-year-old girl who was inside, using a computer. He then fled.
Police were called, and detectives collected swabs of suspected semen from the area and submitted them to the Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences for analysis. A DNA profile was developed and compared to Virginia's DNA database, but the search yielded no matches.
Then, on Aug. 16, 2004, police responded to the 6300 block of English Ivy Way in Springfield to investigate another indecent exposure and peeping into an occupied dwelling. A girl, 14, was working on her computer when she noticed an unknown male standing on the patio, exposing himself.
She fled and police were notified, but the suspect got away. The teen's mother later called police. An officer collected DNA samples and submitted them to the Forensic Sciences lab for analysis.
A DNA profile was developed, but the sample didn't match any in the existing database. However, it did match the sample from the Centreville case. The suspect in these cases remained unidentified, but Perkins received authorization from the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office to obtain arrest warrants based on the DNA profile.
For misdemeanor, indecent-exposure cases, prosecution must begin within one year of the offense date. And the statute of limitations for the two exposure charges was about to expire.
But, concerned about the possibility that a serial sex offender was on the loose, detectives obtained two, "John Doe" arrest warrants — in October 2004 and August 2005 — using the DNA profile from evidence collected at the two scenes.
On June 20, 2006, police arrested Viveiros, charged him with four counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor and placed him in the Adult Detention Center. Due to the nature of those charges, his DNA was obtained while he was in jail.
Upon his conviction, that DNA was sent to the state forensics lab. In his affidavit, Perkins wrote that, last Monday, June 25, he "received notification from the Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences that a DNA 'cold' hit had been obtained from the DNA database," allegedly matching the old Centreville and Springfield crimes with the DNA profile of Viveiros.
That same day, police served him with the two outstanding warrants from 2004 and 2005. They did so in jail where he's currently serving time for a previous sentence.
Perkins then requested a saliva/cheek-lining swab from Viveiros so the forensic lab could "conclusively eliminate or include" him as the source of the DNA recovered from the Centreville and Springfield offenses. And police obtained this swab, June 25, at 3:23 p.m. Viveiros has a July 6 court date for these charges.
The charges for which Viveiros was arrested June 20, 2006 — and later convicted — stemmed from two, indecent-exposure incidents:
* On Dec. 27, 2005, in the 7400 block of Larne Lane in Lorton, he exposed himself to an 11-year-old girl in her backyard. Investigation revealed that he'd approached her on two other occasions, claiming to be looking for his cat.
* On June 11, 2006, in the 7800 block of Seafarer Way in Lorton, Viveiros approached four children, ages 5-8, and tried to talk to them. Knowing he was a stranger, they walked away from him. But he again approached them and offered to show them a box of rabbits.
They followed him a short distance and, when they stopped, he told them to close their eyes. He then convinced one of them, an 8-year-old Lorton girl, to walk further with him near a wood line, where he exposed himself to her. She ran away and told her parents.
For these two incidents, on March 30, 2007, Circuit Court Judge Michael McWeeny sentenced Viveiros to a year in jail (three years' incarceration, with two years suspended).
A few days after Viveiros' June 20, 2006 arrest, police also charged him in connection with three other old cases in Newington, Franconia and Burke. The incidents were:
* On Sept. 8, 2005, a girl, 7, in the 8100 block of Kenova Lane in Newington, told police a man knocked on her back door and exposed himself to her through the window.
* On May 9, 2006, in the 6200 block of Rose Hill Drive in Franconia, two girls, 9 and 12, said they were playing outside when a man approached them. He said he was looking for his dog and then exposed himself to them.
* On June 19, 2006, in the 9600 block of Thackery Square in Burke, a 25-year-old woman reported that, while working on her computer in the basement, she heard noises outside her window. When she walked to the window, a man exposed himself to her.
For these three incidents, police charged Viveiros with two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor and one count each of peeping and indecent exposure. He has an Aug. 24 court date for all of them.