OWENSBORO, Ky. (WEHT) — A suspect in a Tri-State rape case from 1994 has finally been sentenced. Authorities say DNA technology allowed them to finally catch the suspect decades after the crime.
In December 1994, A 19-year-old woman was walking to her vehicle in downtown Owensboro when she was approached with a knife. Officials say a man forced the young woman to drive across the blue bridge and into Spencer County, Indiana. She was raped before being dropped back off in Owensboro with no idea who was responsible.
The woman reached out to the Owensboro Police Department in 2022 to see if there were an updates that could be made to the investigation; Indiana State Police were able to find a DNA match in 2023.
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“When our victim reached out to us, we began the process of trying to get the DNA figured out, see if we could get a match…run it actually through CODIS as it didn’t exist when the case originally occurred,” says Sergeant Cody Cliff of OPD.