Suspect in 1992 Unsolved Rape Arrested in Ambler
DNA testing, sleuthing leads authorities to the Whitpain home of Dewaine Thornton's aunt
It was the unsolvable case. Buried in the West Deptford police evidence room, a cold case sat for nearly two decades before being pulled off the shelf by Detective Cpl. Anna Connelly. In the file was a 1992 apartment burglary and rape of a woman at the Heather Ridge complex, a case that had languished after lab results proved inconclusive and the trail ran cold. In stepped Detective Cpl. Michael Cramer, who embarked on a seven-month mission to close out the crime using one thing not available 20 years ago: DNA. The attack happened late in the night on May 18, 1992, when a man forced open a bedroom window to burglarize an apartment. The victim, a 32-year-old woman, awoke around 3 a.m. to a man standing beside her bed. He then raped her …
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