Two decades after a woman was sexually assaulted in Tampa, DNA helps identify a suspect: detectives

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – More than two decades after reports that a woman was sexually assaulted in Tampa, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a suspect.

Detectives began an investigation on March 7, 2000, after the victim reported that she had been sexually assaulted by a man from whom she had received a ride from the area of Browder Road and Henderson Road.

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Despite DNA collection, investigators initially failed to establish the driver’s identity. The sheriff’s office said all leads had been exhausted and the case was ultimately closed.

The case took on new life in 2022 when the HCSO Special Victims Section reopened the investigation under a DNA cold case grant. The grant is awarded to law enforcement agencies to support the prosecution of unsolved violent crimes.

Detectives then worked with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Parabon Nanolabs, a company that provides DNA phenotyping services to law enforcement, to develop a genetic family tree related to the woman’s alleged attacker.

By August 2024, investigators had a name. The suspect was identified as 59-year-old Walter Leon Rutherford Jr., according to the sheriff’s office.

Rutherford had been living in Missouri since 2007, but had reportedly had ties to Tampa since 2000.

The Stone County Sheriff’s Office in Missouri was able to secure Rutherford’s DNA sample through a court order. Then in October, officials announced that the sample had been confirmed to be a match to a sample taken from the crime scene.

On Monday, October 28, Rutherford was arrested on two counts of sexual battery and booked into Orient Road Jail.

“This case serves as a powerful reminder that time does not diminish our commitment to justice,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a news release. “Our Special Victims Section, using modern technology, closed the case of a victim who had been waiting for answers for over 20 years. We hope this brings comfort and peace to the victim as she continues her treatment.”

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