Addison police investigate strange rape case

Authorities have indicted an unknown suspect in an effort to keep alive their investigation of an unusual 2008 rape case in Addison in which the victim believed she was having sex with her husband.

As the statute of limitation nears, Addison Det. Cmdr. Joe Maranowicz said investigators asked for the indictment, which lists the defendant as John Doe and his DNA sample. The action keeps the case open indefinitely, and the attacker's DNA profile will be checked periodically against new DNA samples added to a nationwide database. Such DNA indictments are more common in burglary cases, officials said.

The rape occurred in the early morning of Oct. 17, 2008 on the 500 block of Mill Road. Police reports indicated there were no signs of forced entry and that windows and doors in the apartment were “unsecured at the time of the attack.

Maranowicz said the victim, now 33, was asleep in her bed when the attacker woke her up.

The woman told investigators she thought the man who got into the bed with her was her husband, who had gone out with friends hours before. The victim let the attacker have sex with her thinking it was her husband, police said. When the victim's husband did return home later that morning, the couple talked about the encounter and the husband told the woman that they hadn't had sex earlier. Police responded and the woman was taken to a hospital where the attacker's semen was retrieved and processed, Maranowicz said.

Police said the woman was not drunk or under the influence of drugs.

“We have no reason not to believe her, Maranowicz said. “I think that it's only normal to be suspicious about the story, but we looked into every angle, did an in-depth interview of her and validated her story.

A match of the attacker's DNA has not been made during the past two years, Maranowicz said. Police retrieved voluntary samples of the 10 to 15 male neighbors who lived in the apartment complex at the time of the attack, but none of the samples matched the attacker's DNA, he said. Police even took a sample of the husband's DNA to rule him out.

Police called the attack a “unique, isolated case. No other area police departments have reported attacks of a similar nature, Maranowicz said.