NORWALK— A 66-year-old Bridgeport man was charged on Friday in connection with a 25-year-old rape case, police said.
Osvaldo Muniz was arrested Friday morning at his place of employment in Bridgeport, police said.
He is charged with first-degree kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in connection with a 1988 case where a then 19-year-old girl was grabbed from inside her friend’s home on Wolfpit Avenue, dragged outside to the woods and raped.
The arrest came after the investigation got a new lead from some old evidence. In reviewing the cold case file, police noted that some of the evidence that could not have been subjected to DNA analysis in 1988 might be suitable for analysis now.
The state forensic laboratory in Meriden was able to develop a DNA profile of the suspect from the evidence gathered in 1988 and submit the profile to the state’s DNA database, which matched the profile to Muniz on Oct. 15 of this year, police said.
In November, police executed a search and seizure warrant on Muniz in order to collect a sample of DNA to confirm the match.
After analysis, the DNA match was confirmed by the state laboratory on Dec. 4, police said.
Muniz was held with bail set at $500,000 and is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 16.
By Kelly Glista, Hartford Courant