Long before anyone heard the term DNA fingerprinting, Dr. Rudiger Breitenecker had a “hunch.”
As other doctors across the country discarded evidence from unsolved rapes, Breitenecker, now 78,began in the 1970s to archive hundreds of samples from sexual assaults at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, hoping one day they might prove useful.
“It was a pure hunch,” he said Friday as law enforcement officials honored him. “My work just made me reluctant to throw out samples that were irretrievable. So I just thought, ?Maybe we shouldn?t throw them out?? It turns [out] it was a good move.”
Since the discovery of DNA fingerprinting in 1984, police are locking up dozens of accused sex offenders, thanks to Breitenecker?s foresight.
Since 2005, Baltimore county police have arrested 29 people, clearing 46 cold cases, using evidence archived by GBMC. Among those is the arrest of Alphonso William Hill, who has been charged with six rapes that occurred between the years of 1978 and 1989.
“Many of these rapists are criminals that don?t do it just once,” Breitenecker said.
Breitenecker was honored at the hospital in an event in which Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith declared June 6 “Rudiger Breitenecker” day.
“You?re one of my most valuable detectives,” Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson told the doctor. “You are a crime fighter.”
Breitenecker, a Butler resident, founded GBMC?s Rape Care Center in 1975 — now called the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Program — also participated in more than 2,000 cases and was often the only physician to testify, officials said.
Baltimore County State?s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said there was never an expert that was as good as him. “Behind those 46 cases and those 29 arrests are women who were sexually assaulted that Rudy Breitenecker cared about. He cared enough and had enough foresight to preserve the evidence so that science could catch up with him. It finally did.”
