ORLANDO, FLORIDA - A news article posted on orlandosentinel.com states that the Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon and Orange County Sheriff John Mina held a press conference to announce the capture of a potential serial rapist. The two law enforcement agencies, along with the FDLE Genetic Genealogy Investigations Team, solved two rape cold cases utilizing new DNA testing.
For approximately 20 years, the suspect has kept a "violent secret," law enforcement detectives stated.
Back in 2002, a woman reported to the Orlando police that she was outside of her apartment when a man ran to her, placed a blue towel over her face, and dragged her into the woods. The man was wearing a floppy hat that had covered his eyes. The man raped the woman several times and warned her not to yell, or he would murder her.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement collected a DNA sample from the suspect in a case, and the DNA profile linked the suspect to a separate, similar rape that occurred in 2002: The woman explained to Orange County Sheriff's Deputies that a stranger kidnapped her, pulled her into the wood and sexually battered her.
Orlando Police charged the suspect with two sexual batteries that happened nearly 20 years ago. Although the suspect's DNA didn't match anyone in DNA databases, and the man remained undiscovered to the public for years — until Tuesday when local and state authorities announced they used genetic genealogy to identify the man as a suspect in both rape cases. The 50-year-old night delivery driver was arrested, charged, and booked into the Orange County Jail. He is facing two charges of sexual battery with a deadly weapon or physical force.
The suspect, who was dubbed the "Woodline Rapist" by law enforcement, has been connected with two other sexual battery cases, including an armed sexual battery back in 2011 for which the suspect was identified as the perpetrator, but the rape victim did not wish to file charges, and there was no DNA collected.
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