DNA database helps crack cold cases

Published: Monday, 9/1/2014

BY JENNIFER FEEHAN BLADE STAFF WRITER

For more than a decade after he broke into a Toledo home, raped and hogtied a woman whod been asleep in her bed, Aaron Lamont Beamon got away with the violent crime.

It would take time and the nations massive database of DNA samples to catch up with Beamon.

Now 39, he is to be sentenced Sept. 9 in Lucas County Common Pleas Court after pleading guilty in June to rape, kidnapping, burglary, and robbery in connection with the Oct. 15, 2001, attack on the 21-year-old victim.

She was living with her parents at their home, said Jennifer Liptack-Wilson, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor assigned to the case. Everyone had left for school and work, and she was in bed sleeping.

The victim didnt know her attacker and wasnt able to see his face.

We were never able to find him, but we came to find him because vaginal swabs were taken as part of a rape kit, entered into [the DNA database], and finally we got a hit, Ms. Liptack-Wilson said.

In cases with few other clues to go on, it can be like hitting the lottery.

We see these miracles every day, said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, whose office oversees the testing of DNA evidence through its Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

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DNA database helps crack cold cases