`John Doe' indicted; DNA profile in 1993 rape case stops clock on statute of limitations.

• Position: NEWS

Byline: Gary V. Murray

WORCESTER - His identity remains a mystery to this day, but prosecutors say the man who kidnapped and raped a Worcester woman 15 years ago - and is a "person of interest" in the 1992 slaying of another woman - left behind a crucial piece of evidence, his genetic fingerprint.

On the night of May 18, 1993, the 30-year-old rape victim was walking on Murray Avenue when she was jumped from behind, struck on the head with a blunt object, sexually assaulted and left unconscious in a cardboard box in a trash bin, according to Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Quinlan. Police were notified when the woman, dazed and naked from the waist down, was seen staggering around the neighborhood early the next morning.

The key evidence in the case, a DNA profile, was derived from a rape kit prepared after the woman was taken to the hospital.

Investigators had the biological evidence. They simply didn't know its source. The Combined DNA Index System, a database of DNA profiles from convicted felons, failed to link anyone to the crime.

On May 16, two days before the 15-year statute of limitations would have expired and all hope of prosecuting the case would have been lost, a Worcester County grand jury effectively stopped the clock by returning indictments charging "John Doe, also known as DNA profile ..." with aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (blunt object) and assault and battery.

It was the first "John Doe" case based on DNA evidence to be presented to a grand jury in Worcester County for indictment. District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said it will not be the last.

The handing up of the indictments in the case after a presentation of evidence to the grand jury by Mr. Quinlan means that the statute of limitations, the time period within which a legal proceeding must begin, can not be imposed. If the documented DNA profile in question is matched to a specific person, whether it's tomorrow or 30 years from now, the defendant will be arraigned in Worcester Superior Court and the case will take its course, the district attorney said.

The four indictments returned last month identify the suspect's DNA profile or unique genetic code by a series of numbers and letters in boxes.

Mr. Early said the same unknown man indicted on the rape, kidnapping and assault charges also is a "person of interest," based on DNA evidence, in the strangulation death of 30-year-old Denise A. Comeau, a homeless...