DNA evidence links man to 1998 rape

By SHARI SANGER

Evening Sun Reporter

Hanover police say DNA has helped link a man to the alleged rape of a 69-year-old woman seven years ago in the borough.

Police say Shawn Gregory Gonzalez, 34, forced his way into a home in the 200 block of Potomac Avenue on July 21, 1998, while the woman was sleeping.

The woman awoke about 5:30 a.m. and sprayed Gonzalez with pepper mace, but the substance did not stop him from raping and sodomizing her, according to charging documents filed in District Judge Mervin Dubs' office.

Gonzalez allegedly left the woman's home when she was able to get to the phone and call police.

The attacker's DNA and bodily fluids were obtained from the woman after the alleged rape and sent to the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Forensic Services.

Hanover Police Chief Randy Whitson said Monday a break in the case came Sept. 15.

A forensic scientist at the Pennsylvania State Police laboratory in Greensburg notified local police that the DNA on file from the 1998 attack matched the DNA profile of Gonzalez, Whitson said.

Hanover police said Gonzalez was a longtime Hanover resident before he was arrested on a felony charge in Iowa. Authorities there obtained Gonzalez's DNA and ran it through the national DNA database after he was released from jail.

Whitson was unable to provide details on the charges Gonzalez faced in Iowa.

Police said Gonzalez was brought back to Pennsylvania, where he is being held in Adams County prison on charges of escape and criminal mischief.

Gonzalez is charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and burglary.