A case that had remained unsolved for more than 30 years has taken a major turn in Brooklyn after investigators used advances in DNA technology to identify a man prosecutors say was connected to a 1995 rooftop attack.<\/p>\n
According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, a 36-year-old woman entered her mother’s apartment building in Bedford-Stuyvesant on August 2, 1995.<\/p>\n
An unknown man allegedly approached her, threatened her with a firearm and took her to the building’s rooftop, where prosecutors say he sexually assaulted and robbed her.<\/p>\n
The victim reported the attack immediately, and a rape kit was collected at Brooklyn Hospital. Investigators were able to develop a male DNA profile, but there was no match in the available database at the time.<\/p>\n
In 2005, prosecutors obtained a John Doe indictment<\/strong> based on the DNA profile before the applicable statute of limitations expired.<\/p>\n But the identity of the person connected to the DNA remained unknown for another two decades.<\/p>\n Then advances in familial DNA technology gave investigators a new lead.<\/p>\n According to prosecutors, genetic links pointed detectives toward William Stephens, 54, of the Bronx<\/strong>. Investigators also discovered that Stephens’ mother and other relatives had lived in the same apartment building where the 1995 attack allegedly occurred.<\/p>\n Investigators eventually obtained what authorities describe as an abandoned DNA sample<\/strong> from Stephens.<\/p>\n The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office says that sample matched the DNA recovered from the 1995 rape kit.<\/p>\n Stephens was subsequently charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse, robbery and second-degree assault.<\/p>\n He was ordered held on $250,000 bail<\/strong> and is scheduled to return to court on October 30, 2026. Prosecutors say he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years on the top charge if convicted.<\/p>\n The case shows how advances in forensic technology can give investigators new possibilities in cases that once appeared impossible to solve.<\/p>\n But Stephens has been charged, not convicted<\/strong>. An indictment is an accusation, and the charges must still be proven in court.<\/p>\n For a case that began in 1995, however, the new DNA evidence has brought investigators back to a mystery that had remained unanswered for more than three decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A case that had remained unsolved for more than 30 years has taken a major turn in Brooklyn after investigators used advances in DNA technology to identify a man prosecutors say was connected to a 1995 rooftop attack. The Case Began in 1995 According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, a 36-year-old woman entered her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":930,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alirthmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A DNA Sample Finally Confirmed the Match<\/h3>\n
A 30-Year-Old Mystery Takes a New Turn<\/h3>\n