A Spotsylvania man was convicted of rape on Monday after DNA evidence linked him to a crime he committed more than a decade ago.
Kenneth Ray Bedard was already serving a five-year sentence for beating his wife with a hammer when forensic researchers last year made a discovery that connected him to the rape of a 27-year-old real estate saleswoman on August 20, 1995.
“The victim was selling townhouses out of a model home in Woodbridge, Va., and Bedard used the pretense of being a potential customer,” said Prince William County Public Information Officer John Bogart. “He tied her up and raped her at gunpoint.”
Police did not have any leads in the case until they found the link to Bedard.
“We didn’t have a suspect in the crime, although we had collected forensic evidence,” said Bogart. “Then in November ‘05 we received word from a forensic lab that they’d received a DNA match.”
In Monday’s trial, a judge found Bedard guilty of rape, sodomy, abduction and use of a firearm during commission of a felony.
Bedard will be sentenced on Sept. 11. He faces up to three life terms and eight years in prison, said Prince William County Detective P. Masterson.
Bedard’s history of violent crime may extend beyond the two crimes of which he is convicted.
“[The] Manassas [Police Department] received a DNA hit on a rape case they’re working, also,” said Bogart, who could not list details concerning the case.
