DNA ties rapist to more attacks

A Virginia serial rapist who eluded convictions from 1981 until 1986 has been linked by DNA to three more attacks and the wrongful conviction of at least one innocent man.

Norman Bruce Derr beat charges in seven assaults in Henrico and Spotsylvania counties, all committed by a knife-wielding assailant wearing a nylon stocking mask. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1989 for a similar rape in Fredericksburg.

Now, DNA implicates Derr in a 1986 rape in Waldorf, Md., years after an innocent man was convicted, and also appears to support the innocence claim of Michael McAlister, convicted of a 1986 attempted rape in Richmond.

The Waldorf and Richmond attacks were 17 days apart. Each was committed by a man armed with a knife, disguised with a nylon stocking mask and wearing a red plaid shirt.

While DNA now links Derr to the Waldorf case, no evidence has been found to test in the Richmond case that McAlister has long blamed on Derr.

Nevertheless, for at least a decade, the lead investigator in the attempted rape in Richmond has believed McAlister is innocent, even without DNA proof.

Thats my only regret in my 38 years, said retired Detective C.M. Martin.

On Feb. 23, 1986, a man in a red plaid shirt tried to rape a 22-year-old woman in an apartment laundry room in South Richmond. When McAlister was charged, Martin did not know Henrico police had earlier spotted Derr at the same apartments.

Martin now believes the Richmond victim mistakenly identified McAlister because he agreed to wear a red plaid shirt when posing for his mug shot the same kind of shirt as the assailants.

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DNA ties rapist to more attacks