DNA helps solve a 1983 rape case in Florida

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The attack occurred on August 22, 1983 in the victim's home in Coral Springs. The woman was in her room around 6am when a man wore a steak knife to his neck, reported CNN affiliate, WPEC. When she shouted, he told her to shut up. "I've loved you for months," he told him after the rape.

At the time, the suspect was described as a white, thin, brown-haired man with strong cologne and a strong southern accent, said Tyler Reik, spokesman. from the Coral Springs Police Department.

The DNA collected at the scene was then sent to a crime laboratory, but the technology available at the time did not identify a suspect, the police said Friday.

The case went wrong – until the victim contacted the police in March after hearing testimony about how investigators use DNA to resolve cases.

Investigators examining the evidence as part of an initiative to protect delinquent records sent certain items to the Criminal Investigation Laboratory of the Broward Sheriff's Office for treatment with the assistance of an updated technology. On June 27, detectives determined that a DNA sample of the victim's clothing belonged to the convicted felon, Timothy Norris, police said.

Norris, who is serving a prison sentence in a federal prison in West Virginia, has been charged with sexual violence with a weapon and is awaiting extradition to Florida.

The suspect has already been arrested for assault

Aged 60, he has already been arrested for serious assault, assaulting a woman and kidnapping, authorities said.

This is not the first time Coral Springs Police has solved a cold case with updated DNA technology. Earlier this year, they arrested a man who allegedly wore a ski mask in a women's home in the 1980s, put a gloved hand on his face and allegedly raped her, the affiliate reported. This man is in jail waiting for his trial.

Coral Springs is about 50 miles from Miami.

DNA breaks cold cases

Recently, DNA has given a second chance to cold cases.

The most notable was the investigation of the Golden State killer, who allegedly committed 12 murders and more than 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s. For decades, there were no viable suspects for the attacks. But 42 years after the attacks began, the genealogy Web sites corresponding to Joseph James DeAngelo corresponded to a DNA that was decades old. He was arrested last April.

Since then, several other cases have been resolved.

In April, the DNA of a razor used by Arthur Rudy Martinez was identical to that left by the attacker at the scene of the murder of two women in the late 1970s. Martinez died of a four-year-old cancer before.

And in June, a Nevada Jane Doe, who had been anonymous for 37 years, was identified as Mary Silvani. His killer was identified as James Curry, who died in 1983.

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