DNA in 1998 rape case matched to S. Beloit man

ROCKFORD — A Winnebago County grand jury indicted a South Beloit man on charges of criminal sexual assault Wednesday for a 1998 rape case involving a 70-year-old woman.

Jason Rohr, 26, was charged after his DNA was matched to evidence from the 1998 scene, Winnebago County Chief Deputy Roger Costello said.

“He was in prison for a burglary, and as part of his incarceration, he gave a DNA sample,” Costello said. “The lab matched that DNA with what evidence we had submitted in that case in February.”

Costello said the intervening months were used to make sure the statute of limitations hadn’t expired on the rape case and that Rohr could be transferred here to stand trial.

Costello said detectives will take a second look at other unsolved cases that don’t have DNA evidence to see whether they were similar to the 1998 one.