How cops used DNA left in a park 30 years ago to track down the Woodland Rapist ... trends now
The case of the 'Woodland Rapist' - a serial molester who attacked at least three children in the 1990s - may have been solved using DNA left in a park 30 years ago and DNA submitted to an ancestry website.
Richard Neil, 64, was arrested in Toronto on March 3, in connection to multiple assaults beginning in the early 1990s in one of the biggest breakthroughs in the decades-long manhunt.
The suspected rapist allegedly lured at least three victims to a wooded area, tied them to a tree and assaulted them.
Police reportedly 'took several soil samples to test for DNA and found a profile' of the suspect after he allegedly assaulted a then 10-year-old boy in Brampton's Norton Place Park on September 29, 1994.
Richard Neil, 64, was arrested in Toronto on March 3, in connection to multiple assaults dating back to the early 1990s
At least three victims reported being lured to a wooded area, tied to a tree and assaulted by who the media dubbed, 'the woodland rapist'
The victim, who is now aged 34, was assaulted in Norton Place Park when a stranger forced him to perform sex acts on him
It was not until a 15-year-old girl reported a similar assault in Oakville in August 1995 that authorities conclusively linked all three attacks to the same perpetrator through DNA testing but were still unable to make a breakthrough.
Police have not confirmed what finally lead them to Neil but one victim, who was 10-years-old at the time of his assault, said it was
