A 30-year-old rape case is one step closer to beiing over now that Baltimore County authorities have linked DNA evidence with DNA of a former inmate.
Baltimore County Police charged Edward Dennis Wood, 59, of Westminster, with the Aug. 26, 1978, rape of a 24-year-old woman who was attacked by a man who cut through the screen of a sliding door in her apartment bedroom.
DNA evidence collected from the victim at the time was matched to DNA that Wood was required to give after he was convicted of first-degree rape in another 1978 attack, Baltimore County police said. He was sentenced to life in prison, but was released from custody in 2001. Wood had been living in the 200 block of Herbert Avenue in Westminster, where he was arrested Friday evening without incident, police said in a statement.
Investigators looking through evidence from past sex crimes were able to match the DNA collected from the victim in 1978 with DNA on file in the Combine DNA Index System.
Wood is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Dentention Center on charges of first-degree burglary and rape.
