A sexual battery case from nearly a quarter century ago is believed to have been solved by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office after an arrest on Monday.
The case started in March 2000 when deputies were called about a woman who had been sexually assaulted after she accepted a ride from an unknown man near Browder Road and Henderson Road.
At the time, detectives collected DNA and worked the case, eventually exhausting all leads and the case went cold.
Twenty-two years later, the HCSO Special Victims Section reopened the investigation. Detectives used forensic genealogy to develop a family tree for the unknown criminal.
Then, in August of this year, detectives identified Walter Leon Rutherford Jr., 59, as a possible suspect. Detectives said Rutherford Jr. had been living in Missouri since 2007 but had ties to Tampa in 2000.
After getting a warrant for Rutherford, Jr.'s DNA, it was compared to the sample from March 2000. By October, analysts confirmed the DNA was a match.
Rutherford, Jr. was arrested by HCSO detectives and now faces two counts of sexual battery.
Pasco County woman trying to rebuild mobile home after hurricanes
"I cried, of course, because I've worked very hard getting it nice, which has been difficult for me since I lost my husband and being alone,” Kelly Welty said.
Welty's mobile home lost its roof during Hurricane Milton. She said it was the only one in the Buena Vista community to get totaled by a tornado.
