DNA testing advances help Beach police solve rapes

By Elisabeth Hulette The Virginian-Pilot September 29, 2014

VIRGINIA BEACH

In August 1986, two girls got their truck stuck in the mud.

They walked from the spot near North Witchduck Road to an apartment complex for help but found none. Instead, on their way back, they were gang-raped.

Later they would tell police how three young men dragged them into the woods and forced them into vaginal, anal and oral sex, according to court documents. Officers collected evidence from the girls and searched for their attackers for nearly a year, but they came up empty.

That was then.

Today, advancements in DNA testing have prompted Virginia Beach police to systematically examine cold rape cases and resubmit evidence for testing with the latest methods. Their efforts are paying off: So far this year, 35 cases from the 1980s have been sent to Virginia's Department of Forensic Science, and nine have matched profiles in the state's DNA database.

One of them is the 1986 rape. Clarence Carvell Speller, 50, of Portsmouth and Charles Williams Jr., 49, of Virginia Beach are now charged with rape and forcible sodomy.

In August, Andrew S. Tarantole of Gloucester was charged in a 1985 rape, and in June, Darryl Anthony Babb, 62, was indicted on counts of rape and forcible sodomy in a 1984 case in Virginia Beach.

"It's exciting when you get hits," said Beth Dunton, forensics supervisor for Virginia Beach police. "To know these people have gone so many years without justice, it breaks your heart."

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DNA testing advances help Beach police solve rapes