David Allen Dalrymple (66) who was convicted by a jury, was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 6, 2024
Bryan Taylor, Canyon County Prosecutor, announced that David Allen Dalrymple, age 66, of Nampa, who was convicted by a jury, was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1982 rape and first-degree murder of nine-year-old Daralyn Johnson.
Daralyn left her home to walk to school on the morning of February 24, 1982, but disappeared on her way there. After an extensive search lasting several days with no success, a boy fishing with his family came across her body in a small tributary ditch of the Snake River near Map Rock Road. An examination of her body revealed that she had been raped and had died of blunt force trauma to the head and/or drowning.
A man named Charles Fain was wrongfully convicted of Daralyn’s rape and murder in 1983 and sentenced to death. Fain spent over seventeen years imprisoned on death row, maintaining his innocence and pursuing appeals in both state and federal courts. In 2001, Fain was released after mitochondrial DNA analysis demonstrated that, contrary to previous assertions based on microscopic visual comparison, he could not have been the source of suspect hairs found on Daralyn’s body. Although the mitochondrial analysis was able to exclude Fain as the source of the hair, no new suspect could be affirmatively identified until many years later.
Tireless efforts by Canyon County Sheriff’s detectives and tremendous scientific advances over nearly two more decades lead to the identification of David Dalrymple, who was already serving an indeterminate life sentence for kidnapping and sexually abusing another young girl. A DNA sample was obtained from Dalrymple pursuant to a search warrant and compared to the DNA of the suspect hairs. Further DNA comparisons were performed using samples extracted from Daralyn Johnson’s underwear.
Statistical analyses performed by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz and The Bode Technology Group rendered overwhelming evidence of guilt. Over six and a half weeks of jury trial, Canyon County deputy prosecutors Ted Lagerwall, Virginia Bond, Karson Vitto and Peter Donovan presented this evidence to prove Dalrymple’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and secure justice for Daralyn Johnson 42 years after her death.
At sentencing, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ted Lagerwall urged the court to impose a fixed life sentence, insisting that the defendant’s “reign of terror” must come to an end. Pronouncing sentence, the Honorable District Judge Thomas Whitney remarked that the defendant’s crimes were “heinous in the extreme,” that he was a “a remorseless, repeat, violent sexual abuser of children . . . incapable of rehabilitation,” and that only life without parole could secure “even a reasonable probability” that he would not rape or murder a young girl again.
“The road to justice has been a long journey,” said Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Taylor. “After 42 years the Johnson family can finally have closure that the man who took their precious daughter from them will remain behind bars for the rest of his life.”