Oct 29, 2024
A sexual battery case from nearly a quarter century ago is believed to have been solved by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office after an arrest on Monday.The case started in March 2000 when deputies were called about a woman who had been sexually assaulted after she accepted a ride from an unknown man near Browder Road and Henderson Road.At the time, detectives collected DNA and worked the case, eventually exhausting all leads and the case went cold.Twenty-two years later, the HCSO Special Victims Section reopened the investigation. Detectives used forensic genealogy to develop a family tree for the unknown criminal.Then, in August of this year, detectives identified Walter Leon Rutherford Jr., 59, as a possible suspect. Detectives said Rutherford Jr. had been living in Missouri since 2007 but had ties to Tampa in 2000.After getting a warrant for Rutherford, Jr.'s DNA, it was compared to the sample from March 2000. By October, analysts confirmed the DNA was a match.Rutherford, Jr. was arrested by HCSO detectives and now faces two counts of sexual battery.
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