A man was arrested in connection with a 2015 kidnapping and sexual battery cold case in Tamarac, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026.
Miami Herald File
Ten years after a woman was raped by two men in Tamarac, DNA evidence has led to the arrest of one of her attackers, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.
A young woman was leaving an apartment complex around 11:30 p.m. on July 10, 2015, when she was approached by a stranger, who grabbed her, threatened to kill her and forced her into a car with another man, BSO said. They threw her phone out the window and sexually battered her in a secluded area of a parking lot.
“Eventually on that terrifying night in 2015, the victim was able to escape by opening the car door and jumping out of the moving vehicle,” BSO said. “She fled to a nearby business and called for help.”
Detectives investigated her attack but, with very few leads, the case went cold. Forensic evidence collected at the time revealed DNA profiles, but there were no matches in a national database.
BSO’s Cold Case Unit re-examined the evidence in December 2024 and submitted it to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement DNA Database, which located an inmate who was a possible close family member of one of the attackers, BSO said.
Investigators identified Melvin Kendrick, 59, as a suspect and collected his DNA, and it matched a sample from one of the woman’s attackers, BSO said.
Kendrick, from Coral Springs, was arrested on Feb. 19 and is facing one count of sexual battery and false imprisonment. No attorney was listed. He bonded out of Broward County jails, records show.
Detectives are continuing to investigate the identity of the second man, BSO said. Anyone with information can contact Detective David Towsley at 954-321-4210 or submit a tip through the SaferWatch App.
“The wait for justice lasted years,” BSO said. “Now, thanks to tireless investigative work by detectives, the victim finally knows one of her attackers will be held accountable”