ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man is charged with rape nearly 32 years after the assault and is suspected in several other unsolved cases from around the same time.
The Tampa Bay Times reports investigators reopened the 1986 cold case and were able to use new technology to match DNA taken at the time to 56-year-old Anthony Stokes. Stokes was arrested Friday.
St. Petersburg police Maj. Shannon Halstead said investigators “know for a fact” he committed other rapes.
Halstead said Stokes broke into the home of the 39-year-old woman in December 1986 and raped her at gunpoint.
Police didn’t say how they had a sample of Stokes DNA because they are continuing to investigate the cases.
Stokes was being held in the Pinellas County jail on Sunday. Online jail records don’t list a lawyer representing him.
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Information from: Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.), http://www.tampabay.com.
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