Rape Suspect Charged In Connection With Two More Assaults
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Lawrence Cook left Allegheny County Police headquarters facing two more rape charges in Wilmerding.
He says he's not the man who did it.
"What do you have to say about these charges?" he was asked.
"Man this (expletive) ain't true, man," he said. "It's a set up."
"Were you involved in any of these sex assaults?"
"No sir," he replied.
Last February he was charged with the rape of a woman in the 600 block of Middle Avenue in Wilmerding in November of 2015.
She said he forced her to buy gas at a nearby gas station, then forced her back to her home where the rape occurred.
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He was ordered to stand trial for that case after a preliminary hearing last month.
That arrest led to an investigation that traced his DNA through Georgia, where he once lived, and to two more cases were found.
One from February of 2014, another from July of 2015. But at that point there was not enough for an arrest.
"We were unable to develop a solid suspect in these cases based on the information we had at that time," said Acting Allegheny County Police Superintendent Jim Morton. "On December 17, 2015 we received a crime lab report from the DNA section who stated that we had a match to our 2014 rape case in Wilmerding. This was an unknown predator who did not have a criminal record at that time," he said.
But once arrested in the November 2015 case, and through further investigation here and in Georgia, a specimen was run through a law enforcement database.
"The final link was to obtain a definitive DNA specimen from that individual," said Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams. "Compare that then back with the sexual assault kits, and pull the whole investigation together."
And as a result of this investigation an auto theft and a rape case in Georgia is also under investigation.