{"id":361851,"date":"2026-08-03T20:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/361851\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T20:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T20:36:09","slug":"decades-old-south-florida-sexual-assault-case-solved-after-dna-advancement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/361851\/","title":{"rendered":"Decades old South Florida sexual assault case solved after DNA advancement"},"content":{"rendered":"

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 After nearly 40 years, a Broward County<\/a> detective has solved a sexual assault case involving an elderly woman after advancements in DNA testing.<\/p>\n

The Broward Sheriff’s Office says the 85-year-old woman was asleep in her apartment back in 1987 in Deerfield Beach<\/a> when the suspect entered through her sliding door, tied her up, assaulted her twice at knifepoint, stole items from her home and then fled.<\/p>\n

BSO says 10 days after the original attack and only miles away, similar events took place. Investigators identified a suspect but without the technology, there was no way to positively confirm it.<\/p>\n

See also: Police identify victim, suspect in Port St. Lucie murder-suicide<\/a><\/p>\n

BSO Detective Andrew Gianino, one of the original deputies on the case, believed the crime needed to be re-examined all these years later. With assistance from BSO’s Crime Lab analysts and Crime Scene detectives, officials say a suspect DNA match was identified as Gregory Rollison<\/p>\n

Rollison was already serving nine years in the California State prison system for attempted murder on a law enforcement officer. Officials say he has been moved to Broward County and is facing 2 counts of sexual battery and 1 count of armed burglary of a dwelling for the 1987 attack.<\/p>\n

“In a case like this where I was on scene in 1987 and physically met the victim, and now all these years later she’s passed away, it feels like it went full circle, and we were able to provide her some rest, if there is such a thing for her,” says Detective Gianino. “I think it’s really important for people to know and to maintain hope. So long as there’s DNA there’s always a chance.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 After nearly 40 years, a Broward County detective has solved a sexual assault…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-361851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}