Modern CSI Techniques Lead To Arrest In Seminole Cold Case

SEMINOLE, FL – New technology has allowed Pinellas County Sheriff's cold case detectives to make an arrest in a rape nearly 30 years after the crime took place.

On June 15, detectives arrested Russell Lee Rogers, 59, of 1368 River Road, Oak Vale, Mississippi, and charged him with two counts of armed sexual battery and one count of armed kidnapping in connection to a crime that occurred in Seminole 29 years ago.

The crime occurred at around 10 p.m. Feb. 16, 1987, at a laundromat at 5731 Seminole Blvd., Seminole, and in a wooded area in Pinellas County.

A 22-year-old woman was removing clothes from a washing machine at the laundromat when a man came up from behind, produced a knife and forced her into his car.

He drove north on Seminole Boulevard and pulled off the road into a wooded area where he ordered the woman out of the car. He proceeded to force her to perform sexual acts on him at knifepoint. He then told her to undress and began raping her.

Afterward, he drove her back to the laundromat and ordered her into a bathroom, instructing her to remain in the bathroom for 10 minutes while he fled the scene.

During the investigation, the sheriff’s office collected and processed evidence including fingerprints from a public telephone near the laundromat, which were submitted to the Automated Fingerprint Identification System on several occasions over the next two decades. However, the system came up with no matches.

In April 2016, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office upgraded its AFIS system with new Morphotrak biometric software, significantly increasing the accuracy of the fingerprint-matching algorithms.

In January 2018, during a case review, cold case detectives requested that latent print examiners use the new AFIS biometric software to process the fingerprint evidence collected in 1987.

The new technology identified one viable candidate: Rogers who was 27 years old at the time of the crime.

Through cooperation with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, a search warrant was obtained to collect Rogers’ DNA. The DNA evidence confirmed Rogers to be the the rapist.

An arrest warrant was obtained and on, June 15, Rogers was taken into custody by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. He was then transported to the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office in Monticello, Mississippi, to be interviewed by Pinellas County Sheriff's Office detectives.

According to detectives, Rogers said he could not recall the specific incident, but did not deny the allegations. He understood that his DNA was found at the crime scene, confirming him as the suspect.

Rogers was booked into the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office jail to await extradition to the Pinellas County Jail.

The arrest has provided a sense of closure for the victim who is now 53 years old.

Image via Pinellas Sheriff