DNA leads to arrest in rape case
Old-fashioned police work solidified findings
07/06/06
Modern DNA testing led to the identification of a recently arrested suspect in the rape of an elderly Cockeysville resident.
But old-fashioned police work and information provided by the 90-year-old victim and voluntary witnesses enabled county police to bolster their case against
Raymond Peter Boyer, 42, of Baltimore.
Boyer has previous convictions for murder and burglary, and at the time of the crime was employed by Gerber's Trash Removal service in Cockeysville. He is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center on charges of first-degree rape, first-degree assault, first-degree burglary and theft in connection with cash a
nd a wallet that were missing from the victim's home after the incident.
The rape, which took place around 8 a.m. March 30 near Warren Road, raised considerable concern in the Cockeysville area, where relatively few violent crimes occur.
"People were very upset, considering the fact that Cockeysville Middle School is right there," near the crime scene, said Cockeysville resident Pam Rutledge, president of the Cockeysville Police & Community Relations Council. "That's pretty scary."
Fortunately, the victim provided quite a bit of information in describing her attacker, including that he might have been wearing a red jacket. Shortly after the incident, police found a red sweatshirt on the ground near a bus stop in the 100 block of Warren Road, near York Road.
Indeed, police charging documents against Boyer said the victim's description of her attacker, while not definitive, was detailed.
The woman told police that when she answered her door that morning, she saw a
black
male, about 6 feet tall. The stranger told her he worked for a construction company nearby that probably would have to do some work on her house, according to charging documents.
The stranger then asked for a light for his cigarette. The victim told police that when she moved to her bedroom to find a match, the man walked in without permission. The victim then screamed. When the man attempted to cover her mouth, she tried to bite his hand. He then threw her onto her bed.
When her attacker took his hand off her mouth, she offered to give him money if he would leave her alone. He agreed, but when she got a $50 bill from her dresser and gave it to him, the man picked her up and threw her on the bed again. She said he put a gag in her mouth and raped her.
Afterward, the victim said the rapist got dressed and got them each a glass of water from the kitchen. He then left her house, wiping off the door handle as he went.
The victim later discovered that a wallet containing cash was mi
ssing from her purse.
The victim was taken to Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where she was treated and released.
Red sweatshirt is key
Later, when police showed the victim the red sweatshirt, she said it looked like the one the rapist had been wearing. Police said hair found on the sweatshirt appeared to be from the victim.
Police extracted a DNA sample from the sweatshirt, which was entered into the FBI Laboratory's Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS.
On March 30, when police e-mailed a bulletin asking for the public's help in solving the case, the red sweatshirt found on Warren Road was mentioned. Ultimately, the sweatshirt bore fruit in more ways than one.
The day of the rape and in the days following it, several witnesses came forward with additional information.
According to charging documents, one witness told police that three weeks before the rape she saw a man fitting the rapist's description standing in front of the victim's house. As th
e witness approached, the man turned away, as if to keep her from getting a good look at his face.
Two other witnesses said they'd seen a man fitting the suspect's description walking in the immediate area the day of the rape.
Several days after the attack, another witness came forward and said that on March 30 he had observed a man fitting the suspect's description walking westbound on Warren Road, near York Road. The witness also saw the man take off "a jacket" and throw it on the ground.
That was where the case stood - with several potential sightings of a suspect but no definitive description of the rapist - until June 22.
That's when county police were notified that the DNA sample matched that of a suspect whose DNA was registered in the national FBI index.
The suspect was Boyer who, police were later able to determine, was employed just a few blocks from the victim's home, at Gerber's Trash Removal, in the 200 block of Cockeysville Road.
Though Boyer was n
o longer employed by Gerber's at the time of his arrest, he had worked there for 12 years and sometimes walked to work along a route consistent with where some of the witnesses had placed him shortly after the rape.
Boyer was arrested without incident June 23 at his home in the 400 block of Denison Street in Baltimore.
Rutledge, president of the Cockeysville Police and Community Relations Council, praised police personnel at the Cockeysville Precinct for their role in identifying and arresting the rapist.
"It seems like anytime there is a rape in our area, Capt. (Marty) Lurz (commander of the Cockeysville Precinct) and his officers take it personal," Rutledge said. "I don't think there have been any rapes up here that haven't been cleared."
