COLLIN COUNTY, Texas – In a powerful culmination of decades-long investigative persistence, a Collin County jury has convicted Nicholas Carney, 65, of Ardmore, Oklahoma, for the horrific 1991 kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl in Plano, Texas. Carney was sentenced to life in prison, ensuring he will spend the remainder of his days behind bars.
The crime occurred on August 15, 1991, when the young victim was abducted by a stranger while walking with a friend to a community pool. Over several terrifying hours, she endured sexual assault before being released approximately 20 miles from her home. Despite the collection of crucial DNA evidence and a composite sketch created with help from the child’s friend and Plano Police Detective Larry Wilson, the case went cold as initial efforts by multiple agencies failed to identify a suspect.
Years later, the DNA profile, developed in 2004 by the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science (SWIFS) in Dallas and entered into the national CODIS database, linked the perpetrator to another unsolved case: the March 25, 1999, kidnapping and sexual assault of a nine-year-old girl in Dallas. In that incident, the child was taken while walking home from school, assaulted for hours, and released far from home. A composite sketch was again created, this time with assistance from ATF Agent Sharon Whittaker…