DNA Links Suspect in Potomac River Rapist Case

By D.C. Witness Staff - February 27, 2020
Court | Daily Stories | Documents | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

A detective said Feb. 27 that his findings are connected to a suspect in a 21-year-old homicide case.

Giles Warrick, 60, has been charged with first-degree murder and sexual assault for allegedly striking 29-year-old Christine Mirzayan in the head several times with a large rock in addition to raping her. During the evening hours on Aug. 1, 1998, Mirzayan was walking in the 3600 block of Canal Road, NW when Warrick allegedly approached her. Warrick allegedly physically and sexually assaulted Mirzayan. On Aug. 2, 1998, Mirzayan was found dead.

Officers gathered Warrick’s DNA in November 2019 when they first spoke to him. His DNA was a match to the DNA found on the scene of Mirzayan’s murder.

When officers searched Warrick’s home they recovered a letter written by Warrick for his fiance. In the letter, Warrick asked for forgiveness.

Officers also recovered a firearm in the kitchen that belonged to Warrick’s fiance. The detective testifying said that she said she normally kept the firearm in a bedroom, not in the kitchen.

The MPD detective said that the moving the gun and writing the letter were a consciousness of his guilt.

Apparently, another detective saw the lights turn on in Warrick’s South Carolina house at 2 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2019.

“The concern was that he was going to leave. He was going to go somewhere,” a MPD detective said during court.

The detective said officers took Warrick’s restless state as another indication of a consciousness of guilt. 

DC Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman found probable cause in the case. Despite Warrick’s lack of recent criminal history, from 1979 to 1998, he had a repeated pattern of misconduct. 

Judge Edelman ruled that Warrick was a present and future danger to the community and held without bail.

A felony status conference is scheduled to occur on May 8.