Guilty plea made in 2 rapes; DNA had led to arrest

A 29-year-old man admitted Thursday to raping two women last summer – one of whom he attacked in her own home, and the other inside her car.

Both women were strangers to Edward D. Miller when he raped them in July and August. He pleaded guilty to the two rape charges, as well as to being a habitual offender.

Miller, 29, of the 4000 block of Hessen Cassel Road, was arrested this year after DNA tests implicated him in the crimes.

According to court documents, a woman was eating lunch in her parked car July 25 in a parking lot in the 300 block of East Washington Center Road when Miller opened the back door of the car, covered the woman’s eyes and mouth with his hands and ordered her to get into the back seat.

He ordered her to cover her face with her hands and then raped her, according to court documents.

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

The other rape charge stems from an attack Aug. 17. According to court documents, a woman was walking into her living room after taking a shower in a home in the 5500 block of Renfrew Drive.

Miller yelled at the woman to not look at him and shoved her to the floor. Putting a towel over the woman’s head, he led her to a bedroom where he raped her. After that assault, he took her back into the living room and told her not to get up, and he left through the back door, according to court documents.

Both women were treated at the Sexual Assault Treatment Center, where investigators collected DNA samples later sent to the Indiana State Police for analysis.

In his plea hearing, Miller said he did not know the women. He has previous convictions for battery and domestic battery. At the time of his arrest on the rape charges, he was in the Grant County Jail on drug-related charges.

Miller will be sentenced in June. He faces 10 to 40 years in prison.