Mississippi man arrested for 1987 Pinellas rape

Photo via PCSO

For a second time in a week, local investigators have made an arrest in a decades-old sex crime. This time, Pinellas deputies say improvements in fingerprint technology has helped them solved a rape from 1987.

It was back in February of 1987 when a 22-year-old woman was kidnapped at knifepoint from a Seminole laundromat, then raped in the woods.  The rapist brought the woman back the laundromat and let her go, but was never seen again.

Evidence form the scene included fingerprints lifted from a public telephone near the laundromat.  They were checked against the nationwide database through the years, but never produced a match – until this year.

Detectives with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office say a 2016 fingerprint-analysis software upgrade improved their capabilities, and when the prints were run as part of a case review in January, they traced back to Russell Lee Rogers of Oak Vale, Mississippi.

Detectives got a warrant to test Rogers’ DNA, which they say confirmed he was the suspect in this case.  He was arrested in Mississippi on Friday on two counts of armed sexual battery and one count of armed kidnapping. 

According to detectives, Rogers – who was 27 at the time of the rape – told them he could not recall the specific crime, but did not deny the allegations.

He’ll be extradited back to Pinellas County.

Meanwhile,  detectives credit advances in DNA analysis for Friday’s arrest in a St. Pete rape from 1986. They believe the suspect identified in that case could be connected to several unsolved crimes from that time period.