DNA leads to arrest of man accused of raping, assaulting Penn State student in 1995
State College police investigators used DNA and genetic genealogy to track down a man accused Tuesday of raping a woman nearly three decades ago, Centre County’s top prosecutor said.
Scott R. Williams, 49, was arrested Tuesday on felony charges of rape, aggravated assault and robbery. He’s accused in the 1995 rape of a Penn State senior, who investigators said was attacked along the 900 block of South Pugh Street.
“This is one of the most — if not the most — violent episodes I have seen in 23 years,” Centre County Deputy District Attorney Sean McGraw said during Williams’ preliminary arraignment.
Passersby found the woman disrobed from the waist down and covered in blood during graduation weekend 26 years ago. She was treated for skull, facial and jaw fractures, county District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said during a press conference.
Five years passed without an arrest, but former borough police detective Tom Jordan authored an arrest warrant in March 2000 for “John Doe” based on DNA collected from the scene.
The detective and former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar were among the first along the East Coast to file an arrest warrant of that kind, Cantorna said.
“The investigators were confronted with a five-year statute of limitation,” McGraw said. “And that is why detective Jordan took the unprecedented step in this region of filing a criminal complaint against a John Doe identified by the DNA profile.”
A genetic genealogy analysis completed in November — similar to what was used in the Golden State Killer cold case in California — allowed borough police detectives Stephen Bosak and Nicole Eckley to zero in on Williams.
DNA from a sample collected the hospital gave the detectives an opportunity to find at least two of Williams’ relatives and eventually himself, police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
After identifying Williams as a suspect, the detectives surreptitiously attended a Mifflin County High School football banquet in an effort to obtain any utensils Williams used.
That plan initially backfired — police said Williams did not eat or drink at the banquet — but the officers instead snagged a discarded fork, knife, spoon, napkin and plate used by one of Williams’ relatives.
The decadeslong investigation didn’t stop there.
An officer in June collected three trash bags from outside Williams’ home. Detectives parsed through the garbage and found six bottles full of tobacco and saliva, police said.
The DNA from those bottles matched the DNA collected from the hospital, police wrote in an affidavit unsealed Tuesday. McGraw credited Bosak and Eckley for their “exemplary efforts.”
The woman “expressed a lot of gratitude” for the borough police investigation, McGraw said.
“Detective Bosak and detective Eckley displayed incredible commitment, tenacity and judgment in their pursuit of justice in these cases,” McGraw said during a press conference.
He declined to say if Williams is being investigated in connection with other unsolved crimes. The investigation is ongoing, McGraw said, and encouraged anyone with information to contact the State College Police Department.
Williams, of Mifflin County, did not have a lawyer during his preliminary arraignment.
He was also charged with one misdemeanor count each of indecent assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, theft and receiving stolen property.
Centre County Judge Brian Marshall set bail at $500,000, which Williams did not post. He is detained at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 13.
This story was originally published October 5, 2021 at 3:31 PM.