SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – Nearly 36 years after a 7-year-old girl was abducted from a Tampa bowling alley and sexually battered, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said it has identified the suspect through advances in DNA testing and genetic genealogy.
Investigators identified the suspect as Young Tom Talmadge, 70, who was living in the Philippines, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies said the girl was at Tampa Lanes on North Dale Mabry Highway on Nov. 20, 1989, when an adult man approached her, lured her to his vehicle and abducted her. Over the next several hours, investigators said she was sexually battered before being released near Crown Lanes on West Hillsborough Avenue.
The sheriff’s office said biological evidence collected in 1989 produced a viable DNA profile. But despite a large-scale investigation, the case eventually went cold. The profile was later entered into CODIS in 2005, and no match was found, authorities said…