ELLSWORTH – For the first time in Maine, police are charging an unidentified man with rape.
Police have no idea what the man’s name is, what he looks like or even where he might be.
All they have are two matching samples of DNA and five days to file charges against him before the statute of limitations runs out for prosecuting him, according to officials.
Michael Povich, district attorney for Hancock and Washington counties, said Wednesday that the DNA samples are from incidents that occurred in Hancock in 1996. The samples are enough to issue the so-called “John Doe” warrant and keep the case alive until investigators find out to whom the samples belong.
“We don’t know who it is,” Povich said. “As long as you bring charges within six years, it doesn’t matter how long it takes to prosecute.”
This is the first time charges of any kind have been brought in Maine based solely on a DNA profile, Timothy Kupferschmid, director of the State Crime Lab in Augusta, said Wednesday.
“It’s a big deal for us,” Kupferschmid said.
The reason such measures have not been taken in Maine before is a combination of circumstances and scientific advances, according to Kupferschmid.
Not many cases from 1996 – the year currently affected by the six-year statute of limitations for gross sexual assault – include DNA evidence, he said. Maine’s DNA lab was created in 1997 and many scientific advances in DNA profiling have occurred since then, the crime lab director said.
DNA samples in Maine are not discarded, Kupferschmid said, even if the statute of limitations in a certain case runs out. There is no statute of limitations in murder cases, he said.
By bringing charges with DNA evidence alone, the case can be kept alive in the event that a match occurs with someone whom police take into custody anywhere in the country, Kupferschmid said. The unknown suspect is most likely either dead, in jail or has moved out of the area, he said. DNA samples can be taken in Maine from anyone accused of a felony or of certain misdemeanor crimes.
“National statistics show there’s a very high recidivism rate with rapists,” the crime lab director said. “It’s essentially a waiting game now.”
The DNA samples were taken from a woman who lived on Route 1 in Hancock after she allegedly was raped by an unknown man Aug. 11, 1996, and from a car’s steering wheel on which the man supposedly ejaculated in October of that year, according to Maine State Police Detective Steve Pickering. He said that whoever left the DNA evidence behind may be connected with attempted rape and Peeping Tom cases that occurred in Hancock, Franklin and Sullivan between 1995 and 1999.
The alleged victim of the August 1996 rape told police it was dark and the man was wearing a disguise when she was attacked, Pickering said. The car from which the second sample was taken belonged to another woman but was parked across the road from where the first woman reportedly was raped, he said. The home where the alleged rape occurred also was where a home invasion occurred in August 1998, he said.
Pickering said he and other investigators are pleased that charges have been brought by using the DNA profile from the 1996 incident.
“It’s as good or better as having a name or date of birth,” Pickering said.
Names and birthdays of suspects can be identical, he said, but DNA profiles of individuals cannot. The DNA samples are matched with others nationwide every two weeks, he said.
“Hopefully someone will get picked up, and with this warrant, we can charge him,” the detective said.
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