DNA match leads to arrest in 5-year-old attempted rape case

37-year-old Nigerian national identified as attacker from 2012 assault thanks to victim who turned in his skin, blood cells to police

Illustrative: Dr. Jari Louhelainen conducts DNA testing in 2014. (Jari Louhelainen/AFP)
Illustrative: Dr. Jari Louhelainen conducts DNA testing in 2014. (Jari Louhelainen/AFP)

A DNA match helped authorities catch the suspect in the five-year-old attempted rape of a Holon woman, police said Monday.

Police on Sunday arrested a 37-year-old man with Nigerian citizenship whose DNA matched a sample taken from a woman he attempted to assault in 2012.

The woman, who successfully fought off her attacker, scratched his face during the struggle. Police collected the skin and blood cells from underneath the victim’s fingernails in an effort to identify her rapist, but the sample turned up no matches in law enforcement databases.

After the suspect was briefly arrested in connection with a separate crime several months ago, police collected a sample of his DNA. His sample was later run through DNA database

He was rearrested on Sunday, and will be brought before a judge for a remand hearing later on Monday.

Police did not say what the man’s visa status in Israel is.

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