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

A DNA match helped authorities catch the suspect in the attempted rape of a Holon woman some five years ago, police say in a statement.

Police on Sunday arrested a 37-year-old Nigerian man whose DNA matched a sample taken from the 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 and matched that of the sample collected on the woman’s fingernail.

— Tamar Pileggi