DNA evidence helps indict Maryland brothers in brutal 1988 rape of Virginia woman

Two Maryland brothers have been recognized this week as the 2 males who brutally raped a Virginia lady 34 years in the past as a consequence of DNA know-how, police mentioned.

George Thomas Jr. and the late Gregory Allen Thomas of Arlington have been lastly pinned because the creeps that pressured a 22-year-old lady into her automobile and raped her repeatedly in August 1988, Fairfax County Police introduced.

George, 61, was arrested at a Maryland prepare station Monday. His brother, Gregory, died in 2009.

“On this case, justice is delayed However justice isn’t denied,” Chief Kevin Davis mentioned throughout a Tuesday press convention.

The 2 brothers allegedly adopted their sufferer, who has by no means been recognized by police, as she left her job on the Skyline Mall at 10:40 p.m. and into the parking storage.

George and Gregory pressured her into her automobile and made her drive to a secluded and wooded location, Main Ed O’Carroll mentioned.

After defiling their sufferer, the brothers once more pressured her again into her 1987 Ford Escort and made her drive to a different location, the place they raped her once more, police mentioned.

The girl was capable of escape after the second assault and known as the police. Officers from Fairfax County collected an “ample quantity of forensic proof,” O’Carroll mentioned. The sufferer remembered the face of one of many brothers effectively sufficient for police to develop a composite sketch.

“It’s exceptional — The resemblance is uncanny,” mentioned Davis.

Regardless of the hoard of DNA proof and quite a few called-in ideas, police couldn’t discover a match in Virginia or nationwide databanks till 2022, which the officers attribute to current developments in DNA know-how.

An FCPD fingerprint examiner matched fingerprints within the automobile to newly accessible arrest information on file within the Alexandria database that matched Gregory and George, O’Carroll mentioned.

Although Gregory died 13 years in the past, police confirmed by way of DNA evaluation that he was concerned within the sadistic assault.

Police collected additional DNA from George earlier than arresting him by accumulating a cigar he smoked and disposed of.

“He may need smoked his final cigar. They’re not giving cigars out of jail,” O’Carroll mentioned.

“If it wasn’t a match, we’d have moved on. It was a match. He raped our sufferer in 1988.”

Police consider the brothers have been concerned in different crimes over the previous few a long time along with the horrendous 1988 rape.

George denies being concerned within the three-decade-old assault and informed police he was unfamiliar with the case, officers mentioned.

“I beg to vary. My detectives beg to vary. The proof is ample and clear,” O’Carroll mentioned.

George faces two counts of rape, sodomy and abduction. He’s being held at a Maryland detention heart however can be extradited to Virginia.

“He’ll spend this Thanksgiving and hopefully many, many many Thanksgivings incarcerated for the crimes that he dedicated,” Davis mentioned.