Man convicted in sexual assault of sleeping camper decade ago, AK officials say
A man has been convicted nearly a decade after he's accused of physically and sexually assaulting a woman at an Alaska campground, officials said.
Andrew Byrd, now 43, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count each of second- and third-degree assault after a two-week trial, the Alaska Department of Law said in an April 15 news release.
McClatchy News reached out to Byrd's attorney for comment April 16 and was awaiting a response.
The assault happened in May 2015 at a campground in the Portage area, according to prosecutors.
A woman said she woke up at the campground with a man's hand on her mouth, and he strangled her and assaulted her sexually, prosecutors said.
The man had been camping at another site close by, according to prosecutors.
A sexual assault kit was done, and it was tested after state troopers in 2016 received a Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant, prosecutors said. But while 'a male DNA profile was identified' and entered into a national database, there was no immediate match, according to prosecutors.
The case became cold 'despite a thorough investigation,' prosecutors said.
But that cold case status changed in 2023, when the state crime lab alerted troopers to a potential match 'that linked the unknown male DNA profile collected from the victim's sexual assault kit to a DNA sample collected from Andrew Byrd,' prosecutors said.
'At trial, jurors heard testimony from the victim, who described the sexual assault, as well as from other witnesses and DNA analysts,' according to prosecutors.
Byrd took the stand as well, according to prosecutors, although they didn't detail what he said.
Byrd's sentencing hasn't yet been scheduled, prosecutors said.
Portage is about a 60-mile drive southeast from Anchorage.
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