More than 30 years after a woman was abducted and raped in Fairfax County, Virginia, police say two brothers were responsible, and new fingerprint evidence helped them make an arrest.
George Thomas Jr., 61, was arrested Monday at the Friendship Heights Metro station in Maryland and charged with two counts of rape, sodomy and abduction.
Fairfax County police said Thomas Jr. and his younger brother Gregory Allen Thomas, who died in 2009, physically assaulted a woman as she left her job at the Skyline Mall on Leesburg Pike in Falls Church the night of Aug. 24, 1988.
The brothers forced the 22-year-old victim into her car and made her drive to two different locations, where they both sexually assaulted her, according to police.
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After the second assault, the woman managed to get to her car and escape them, police said.
Detectives were unable to make any arrests in the case, but continued to investigate the assault throughout the years, the police department said.
Then, a break in the case came when Thomas Jr. was arrested in Arlington in 2020 for a different crime, police said. The fingerprints police took when he was arrested matched up with prints found in the 1988 victim's car, according to police. Another fingerprint from the car matched Gregory Allen Thomas, police said.
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Investigators then obtained the brothers' DNA and found it matched with DNA evidence recovered after the assault, police said.
“Advancements in technology allow us to revisit cases decades old with the resources at our disposal. No matter the time that has passed, our detectives and professional staff will always fight for answers, resolution, and some measure of justice for those effected by these crimes,” Fairfax County Police Department Major Ed O’Carroll said.
