DNA tests implicate inmate in two rapes

By Masaaki Harada

DNA tests led to charges against a Fort Wayne man accused of raping two women last summer.

Edward D. Miller, 29, of the 4000 block of Hessen Cassel Road, was charged Wednesday with two counts of rape, two counts of criminal deviate conduct and two counts of being a habitual offender.

Miller is being held in the Grant County Jail in Marion after having been convicted of possession of a controlled substance.

On July 25, Miller got into a car in a parking lot in the 300 block of East Washington Center Road and sexually assaulted a woman who was eating lunch in the car, court documents said.

The woman told police that a man opened the back door on the driver’s side and covered her mouth and eyes with his hands.

The man told her to move to the back seat and ordered her to cover her face with her hands.

After raping the woman, the man told her to stay down and not to look at him. The woman waited about a minute and called police, court documents said.

A second rape occurred in a home in the 5500 block of Renfrew Drive on Aug. 17.

A man grabbed a woman when she was walking to the living room after showering. The man yelled at her not to look at him and shoved her to the floor. He put a towel over the woman’s head and led her to a bedroom. After raping her, the man took her to the living room and told her not to get up. He left through the back door, court documents said.

Both women were taken to the Sexual Assault Treatment Center and investigators collected DNA samples. The samples were sent to the Indiana State Police to analyze, court documents said.

It was unclear in the court documents whether Miller knew the victims.

Police identified Miller as a possible suspect and collected DNA samples from him based on a search warrant. A state police forensic analyst determined his DNA profile matched the DNA collected from the two victims, court documents said.

Miller is to be released from the Grant County Jail on Feb. 26. He will be taken to Allen County upon release, the Grant County Sheriff’s Department said.