A man's DNA was used to identify his father as a suspect in the brutal rape and attack of a teenage girl in 1992, officials said.
According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, the 17-year-old girl got off her school bus at the intersection of U.S. 41 and Twin Oaks Drive in Spring Hill on the afternoon of Jan. 16, 1992.
Her family found her in the woods behind an abandoned home about two hours later. She was taken to Bayfront Medical Center in critical condition.
Investigators said they determined the girl had been raped and hit on the head several times, then left for dead. She suffered permanent mental and physical disabilities as a result of the attack, but she was still able to describe her assailant to detectives.
DNA was taken from the girl's body and clothing, and decades later, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement identified Jeffrey Crum, 53, as the suspect by using a familial DNA search that led authorities to his son, who is in prison, then to Crum.
“As the science has advanced over the years, the technology has now advanced to the point that we can get DNA from very minute quantities of DNA and the DNA can be in very poor condition," said Melissa Suddeth, an analyst supervisor with the FDLE.
Deputies interviewed Crum on Feb. 15. They said he admitted to living a mile away from the site of the assault, but that he denied knowing the victim or having any contact with her.
Officials said Crum provided investigators with an oral DNA swab, which was compared to the DNA found on the girl and matched.
Crum was arrested without further incident. He is facing charges of attempted felony murder and sexual battery with serious injury.