DNA "Hit" Leads To Arrest In 1983 Plantation Rape Case
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PLANTATION (CBSMiami) – A DNA match has put a 49-year-old Miami man behind bars, 32 years after he allegedly raped a Plantation woman during a home invasion robbery, police said.
According to Plantation detectives, Aaron Todd Rhone was arrested and charged in an assault that occurred on March 15, 1983.
Authorities said the rape and robbery happened at a home on Northwest 46th Avenue.
The police reported stated a gunman slipped in through an unlocked door as a couple was putting their 5-year-old child to bed.
The robber threatened the husband and wife, forcing them to both lay on the ground. The thief proceeded to tie the man up with belts, police said.
The gunman demanded money and jewelry. He followed the woman to the master bedroom where he then raped her, authorities said.
The thief reportedly got away in the couple's 1977 Toyota Celica with about $1,600 worth of jewelry and cash.
According to the Sun Sentinel, DNA evidence was recovered three days later, but the case was labeled inactive in 1984.
Investigators said Rhone's DNA was entered into a database in 2007. But it wasn't until May 15 of this year investigators got a "hit" matching Rhone when the sexual assault evidence kit collected from the victim was submitted to the Broward Sheriff's Office Crime Lab.
The Sun Sentinel reported Rhone has a long arrest record for charges that include burglary, cocaine possession, carrying a concealed weapon and grand theft as well as several stints in prison.
Ana Ferrer, a treatment director of Broward Sexual Assault Treatment Center, gave insight as to what it's like for a victim.
"It is extremely traumatic. It impacts how they view the world," said Ferrer.
Rhone is facing multiple counts of armed kidnapping and sexual assault with a weapon/sexual battery with a victim over 12 years old.