DNA leads police to arrest rape suspect 7 yrs after attack

Evidence taken from the scene of a home burglary in Rehovot helps lead to breakthrough in unsolved crime.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
DNA 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
DNA 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Police arrested a resident of Lod on suspicion of carrying out a brutal rape seven years ago, following a breakthrough in the investigation based on DNA evidence.
The suspect, 30, allegedly gave a ride to a 21-year-old woman in 2005, picking her up near Gedera. The woman told police that her attacker suddenly drove into a field, where he raped her while launching a vicious physical assault. The attacker then fled the scene, leaving the battered woman to find her own way to a nearby road.
Police from the Rehovot station tried for years to find a lead in the investigation, but failed to make any progress.
Then, in January of this year, DNA evidence was taken from the scene of a home burglary in Rehovot.
Forensic officers compared the DNA sample with DNA evidence taken from the woman following her attack, and found a match, police said.
Police added that the suspect confessed to the rape during questioning after he was presented with the DNA evidence.
He also confessed to carrying out three violent robberies of couples who had been sitting in fields on the outskirts of Rehovot, police said.
The case is one of a growing number of investigations that have been revived after hitting dead ends, thanks to DNA samples.
In January, police in the South announced that a bloody towel a thief left behind in Beersheba had led to his eventual arrest, after DNA in the police’s central database showed a match with DNA from the towel.
Police plan to continue to enlarge the national DNA database.


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