Man convicted of 2015 rape of 89-year-old woman after DNA breakthrough

A 50-year-old man has been sentenced to four years in prison for the 2015 rape of an 89-year-old woman near Randers, Denmark, after new DNA technology linked him to the crime a decade later, DR reports.

The Randers District Court delivered the verdict on Tuesday in a case that had remained unsolved since the assault occurred on the woman’s secluded rural property in Over Fussing. The convicted man, who has consistently denied all charges, was identified through a DNA match to a close relative using advanced kinship-searching methods.

Police recovered DNA evidence at the scene in 2015, but no direct match was found in national databases. The breakthrough came only after authorities adopted the new investigative tool—previously used in unsolved homicide cases—which can trace genetic links to relatives of suspects.

The victim’s daughter, Rita Møller, had urged Østjyllands Police to apply the method, according to earlier statements to DR. The case had left a lasting impact on the local community due to both the brutality of the crime and the decade-long failure to identify a suspect.