TAMPA, FL - December 21, 2020 - According to an online news report posted on cbs12.com, the Marion County Sheriff's Office announced that a suspect had been identified and arrested in a Tampa cold case involving the armed kidnapping and sexual battery of a woman back in 1998. The 22-year-old case was blown wide open after DNA evidence was collected from a cigarette butt. The suspect, a 60-year-old man, was arrested in Marion County, Florida.  

The Tampa Police Department stated that genetic genealogy, in a partnership with Parabon NanoLabs and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, uncovered new leads in the 22-year-old cold case. Those new leads steered the cold case in the direction of the suspect.  

According to a news report from Fox13 in Tampa quoted in this news article, the rape victim, who was 22-years-old at the time, told law enforcement investigators that the suspect kidnapped and raped her at knifepoint. The suspect evaded subsequent arrest for over twenty years due to a lack of evidence. 

In November, a Fox13 news article stated that detectives, investigating the case, followed the suspect to a medical appointment. The police detectives witnessed the suspect smoking a cigarette, and the detectives picked up a cigarette butt that the suspect smoked. The cigarette butt was then sent to a crime lab for DNA evidence processing. The DNA collected on the cigarette butt was then compared with the DNA evidence collected at the 1998 rape crime scene. The DNA collection also led to the suspect being charged in two other unsolved rape cases in Hillsborough County, Florida. These rapes occurred back in 1999.

Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan stated that their department never considers an ongoing investigation a "cold case" no matter how old the case is. The Tampa Police Chief also stated that their department works on every case until the case is solved.