DNA Closes a Cold Case

(CBS 5 News) - Peoria police have made an arrest in a cold case they've been working on for 10 years.

Police say Billy Bowles raped a woman back in 1995. He reportedly grabbed a 29-year-old woman from behind, knocked her down, and dragged her to what at the time was a vacant field at the intersection of 91st Avenue and Olive. Threatening her with a knife, he proceeded to sexually assault her in the field.

After complying with his warning to count to 50 before she got up, the woman ran to her nearby home and called police. She did not know her attacker, and there were no indications that he had stalked her. A forensic exam conducted on the woman netted a DNA sample, but at the time there were no suspect matches in the Arizona Department of Public Safety's CODIS (Combined DNA Index System).

The big break came two years ago when Bowles was arrested on an unrelated charge. It was then that he was required to give a DNA sample.

Last April, the DNA database matched him to the 1995 rape case. He was arrested Friday in Oklahoma and is set to be extradited back to Arizona.

He should return to the valley within 10 days, where he will face kidnapping, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and two counts of aggravated assault charges from the November 1995 incident.