Oakie
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Image of Thies:Indiana man arrested in 35-year-old RI 'cold case' sex assault of girls
"On April 12, 1987, the Rhode Island State Police were called to a home to investigate a report that an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl had been forced into the woods at knifepoint and sexually assaulted by an adult male, the police said."
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"In 2019, State Police Special Victims Unit (SVU) detectives re-opened the case. The Rhode Island State Police Forensic Services Unit with the Rhode Island Department of Health re-examined the physical evidence and researched and initiated a request for genetic genealogy, the police said.
In August of 2022, SVU Detectives received a lead that the suspect was likely one of three brothers originally from Erie County, New York. All had served in the military. Detectives worked with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and learned that the oldest brother, Frank Thies, with no previous known ties to Rhode Island, had reported to the Naval Justice School in Newport the day before the assault, the police said.
With the help of the Indiana State Police, a discarded sample of Thies’s DNA was obtained, tested, and found to match the suspected DNA profile of the offender. The case was presented to a Rhode Island statewide grand jury, and he was indicted. The Indiana State Police took Frank Thies into custody as a fugitive from justice and held him pending extradition to Rhode Island.
Thies is believed to have lived in New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Washington D.C., Texas, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The state police ask anyone with information about Thies to contact the Rhode Island State Police Special Victims Unit at 401-764-5394."
(From: https://turnto10.com/news/local/pol...old-case-from-exeter-rhode-island-nov-17-2022 )