DNA solves 2004 rape case

By Gina Duwe

Janesville police say they have solved a two-year-old rape that ended with a Janesville woman left partially naked and bound along the Janesville bicycle trail.

Investigators linked DNA from the crime to Christopher J. Brown, 35, of 229 Valley Drive, Janesville, said Lt. Danny Davis head of Janesville police detectives. Brown, a suspect in a December rape at the Janesville Mall, hung himself in his cell at the Rock County Jail on Dec. 17.

A search of a national DNA database yielded no other cases matching Brown's DNA, Davis said. The evidence also does not link Brown to a series of six home invasion rapes that Janesville police have been investigating since 1998.

The DNA connection shows Brown sexually assaulted a 40-year-old woman June 23, 2004. A man riding his bicycle on the trail leading into Rockport Park spotted the woman at about 6 p.m. lying in tall grass near a creek bed off Afton Road. She was semiconscious and badly bruised.

Police said the woman was seen leaving Slicks Bar & Grill, 309 Rockport Road, Janesville, at about 1 p.m. that day.

Police characterized the investigation as "very difficult" because the victim had been drinking and didn't remember what happened. Police distributed a sketch of a man who a bartender at Slicks said he was "fairly certain" left with the woman.

Brown was arrested Dec. 14 in connection with the Dec. 12 rape of a 35-year-old Fort Atkinson woman in the Janesville Mall parking lot during broad daylight. He forced her into the back of her van in a lot fronting busy Milton Avenue.

After his arrest, Brown confessed to the assault, Davis said. He was initially charged with one count of second-degree sexual assault and had a cash bond of $1,000 set.

Two days after his arrest, the Rock County District Attorney's Office upped the ante by charging Brown with two additional counts of second-degree sexual assault and one of false imprisonment.

The three assault charges stemmed from repeated sexual contact with the woman. The false imprisonment charge resulted from Brown's holding the woman down during the attack, according to the criminal complaint.

The additional charges led to Brown's bond being raised to $16,000 cash.

Brown had previous drunken-driving arrests in California, and Janesville police in November sent him a summons for worthless checks. But Brown had no previous criminal history, Davis said.

Jail staff had no indication that Brown might be suicidal, so no suicide watch was placed on him.