A 22-year-old felon already in federal prison has been indicted on charges that he abducted a 14-year-old Sanford girl on her way to school and raped her in 2008.

DNA evidence linked him to the crime, police say.

The York County grand jury Wednesday indicted Dane Bosley on charges of gross sexual assault, kidnapping with bodily injury, criminal threatening and assault.

The girl was walking to school on a wooded path behind the Sanford Armory about 7 a.m. on Oct. 8, 2008, when she was accosted at knifepoint, taken to a secluded area and sexually assaulted, Sanford police said.

The girl was released and reported the crime to school officials, who notified police. She described her attacker as a bald man wearing a white sweatshirt.

Officers collected evidence and used police dogs to search the area but couldn’t find anyone matching the description.

Forensic analysts with the Maine State Police crime lab developed a DNA profile from biological evidence collected at the scene and entered it into a state database.

“We did several interviews and collected several DNA samples and there was a lot of work going on at the time, but it had definitely run cold,” Deputy Police Chief Craig Sanford said.

Bosley was arrested March 24, 2010, and charged with robbing Maine Bank and Trust in Sanford on Feb. 25, 2010. He pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the robbery and was sentenced to 32 months in prison.

Once he was convicted, authorities collected a tissue sample and developed a DNA profile that matched evidence collected from the rape scene, Sanford police said. Bosley had not been a suspect before then, Sanford said. The indictment is good news for the community and for the victim, he said.

“We have had contact with the victim and her family,” he said. “I can only guess she sleeps better at night knowing the potential attacker is already behind bars and may be that way for quite a while.”

Cyndi Amato, executive director of Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine, said the effects of a sexual assault on a victim depend on a number of factors, including whether the report is treated seriously and how authorities respond to it, as well as the support system a victim has.

“When the criminal justice system works in a way that victims feel heard and justice is served, it’s helpful,” she said. Victim anxiety caused by having a rapist remain at large is unfortunately commonplace, she said. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network reports that 15 of 16 rapists are never sent to jail.

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@pressherald.com

 

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