Post by admin4laney on Jul 28, 2005 13:55:46 GMT -5
Police Arrest Serial Rape Suspect
POSTED: 12:29 pm EDT July 28, 2005
UPDATED: 2:35 pm EDT July 28, 2005
MASON, Ohio -- Police said they have arrested a suspect in seven rapes in Mason and nearby communities between 1994 and 1999.
DNA evidence linked Dean Allen Strunk, 48, to the assaults, police said.
Strunk has been charged with the rape of a 15-year-old girl near Blanchester on Dec. 16, 1994, police said Thursday.
Other rape cases against Strunk will go to a grand jury, police said. The seven female victims were ages 5 to 26.
Mason police had been investigating three rapes in their city for the past six years. They said a single suspect's DNA had been found in the Mason cases in 1998 and 1999 and in rapes in Montgomery and Colerain Township in 1999.
More than 300 DNA tests were conducted in search of a match.
Then came two breaks in the investigation this year.
First, DNA linked a 1994 rape in the Blanchester area to the other five.
Detective Scott Doughman, the lead investigator in the Mason cases, contacted the Warren County Sheriff's Department and began investigating rapes in the Blanchester area.
Doughman and Blanchester police then discovered a seventh victim linked by the same DNA.
Crime analysts from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI&I) pulled together evidence from all seven cases, police said.
Police conducted a search warrant Tuesday on Strunk's home in the 8200 block of Celestial Circle in Liberty Township. He was charged Wednesday and arraigned Thursday.
Strunk is being held on $500,000 cash bond in the Warren County Jail.
Here is a chronology of the rapes police say are linked to Strunk:
· July 7, 1994: 15-year-old victim in the Blanchester area.
· Dec. 16, 1994: 15-year-old victim in the Blanchester area.
· April 13, 1998: 14-year-old victim in Mason.
· July 25, 1998: 11-year-old victim in Mason.
· April 14, 1999: 26-year-old victim in Mason.
· July 25, 1999: 5-year-old victim in Montgomery.
· Oct. 6, 1999: juvenile victim in Colerain Township.
www.channelcincinnati.com/news/4781284/detail.html
POSTED: 12:29 pm EDT July 28, 2005
UPDATED: 2:35 pm EDT July 28, 2005
MASON, Ohio -- Police said they have arrested a suspect in seven rapes in Mason and nearby communities between 1994 and 1999.
DNA evidence linked Dean Allen Strunk, 48, to the assaults, police said.
Strunk has been charged with the rape of a 15-year-old girl near Blanchester on Dec. 16, 1994, police said Thursday.
Other rape cases against Strunk will go to a grand jury, police said. The seven female victims were ages 5 to 26.
Mason police had been investigating three rapes in their city for the past six years. They said a single suspect's DNA had been found in the Mason cases in 1998 and 1999 and in rapes in Montgomery and Colerain Township in 1999.
More than 300 DNA tests were conducted in search of a match.
Then came two breaks in the investigation this year.
First, DNA linked a 1994 rape in the Blanchester area to the other five.
Detective Scott Doughman, the lead investigator in the Mason cases, contacted the Warren County Sheriff's Department and began investigating rapes in the Blanchester area.
Doughman and Blanchester police then discovered a seventh victim linked by the same DNA.
Crime analysts from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI&I) pulled together evidence from all seven cases, police said.
Police conducted a search warrant Tuesday on Strunk's home in the 8200 block of Celestial Circle in Liberty Township. He was charged Wednesday and arraigned Thursday.
Strunk is being held on $500,000 cash bond in the Warren County Jail.
Here is a chronology of the rapes police say are linked to Strunk:
· July 7, 1994: 15-year-old victim in the Blanchester area.
· Dec. 16, 1994: 15-year-old victim in the Blanchester area.
· April 13, 1998: 14-year-old victim in Mason.
· July 25, 1998: 11-year-old victim in Mason.
· April 14, 1999: 26-year-old victim in Mason.
· July 25, 1999: 5-year-old victim in Montgomery.
· Oct. 6, 1999: juvenile victim in Colerain Township.
www.channelcincinnati.com/news/4781284/detail.html
