12/11/2025

FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division Presents Biometric Identification Award to Escondido Police Department

FBI

The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division presented the Escondido Police Department with the 2025 Biometric Identification Award at the CJIS Advisory Policy Board meeting in Orlando, Florida, on December 11, 2025.

The FBI developed this award to recognize law enforcement for their efforts in solving major cases using the FBI’s biometric and criminal history repository—the Next Generation Identification (NGI) System.

The CJIS Division honored the Escondido Police for their efforts in solving a cold case that dates to November 1986, when a 75-year-old man was found stabbed to death in his apartment. Detectives collected fingerprints and blood evidence at the scene; however, no person of interest was identified, and the case went cold.

In 2016, Escondido Police used new technology that led to a better photograph of a latent fingerprint recovered from a faucet knob at the scene. That latent print was searched against the NGI System, which had deployed enhanced latent investigative capabilities in May 2013. Within five minutes, the system returned viable candidates for comparison. Using this investigative lead, one of the candidates was identified as a potential suspect, and DNA from this individual was compared to an unknown profile collected from the victim’s apartment. The two profiles were identical. The suspect was subsequently arrested and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2022.