DNA Leads To Arrest In Cold Rape Case

NORWICH DNA led police to a man who they say beat and raped a woman in an alley more than five years ago.

Alexander S. Perry, 24, of Central Avenue was arrested on a warrant Thursday charging him with first-degree sexual assault, second-degree assault, first-degree threatening and first-degree unlawful restraint, police said.

He was in custody on $500,000 bail Friday morning and was scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court in Norwich later in the day, they said.

According to police, on April 29, 2009, officers responded to a report of a sexual assault that happened in an alley behind a business on Central Avenue. A woman told them she had been walking in the area when a man she didn't know called over to her.

She walked toward him and he grabbed her, beat her and sexually assaulted her, police said.

The woman had what police described as "moderate" injuries, including broken bones in her face.

An extensive search by officers and a scent-sniffing dog failed to lead police to a suspect, police said. Evidence, including the suspect's DNA, was taken from the scene and, over the years, occasionally compared to DNA profiles that are stored in state and national databases, they said.

On Jan. 12, police learned that during one of those comparisons, staff at the state forensic lab found a match.

On Thursday, Community Police Officer Ken Wright saw the suspect now identified as Perry walking on Central Avenue, the same street where the rape happened, police said.

Wright arrested him.

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DNA Leads To Arrest In Cold Rape Case