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(William Neff, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Since embarking on a massive rape kit testing initiative, authorities say they have identified 207 suspected serial rapists responsible for almost 600 attacks across Greater Cleveland.

The men each are linked by DNA to between two and 14 rapes reported since about 1993.

Nathan Ford, linked to at least 15 rapes, appeared on the radar about a decade ago during a state pilot project that paid police departments to send rape kits for testing.

Then, DNA connected Ford to attacks on eight victims over an eight-year span from 1996 to 2004. They included people from all walks of life: drug addicts, teenagers, a college student and schoolteacher. A judge sentenced Ford to 138 years in prison in those cases.

Since rape kit testing started his DNA has been linked to seven more sexual assaults.

Nathan Ford is serving 138 years in prison for the rapes of eight women. Recent rape kit testing has connected him 14 more rape cases.

Other repeat rapists, such as Robert Green, flew under the radar, attacking at least seven women over a nine-year stretch from 1993 to 2002 without arrest.

Green was 68 and on oxygen by the time an investigator tracked him down in 2013 after DNA connected together the rapes of five of his victims.

A judge last year sentenced him to 100 years in prison.

Also among the serial rape cases are ones linked to yet-to-be identified offenders, known only by their DNA profiles. Those men could be dead or still out there stalking victims.

As investigators and prosecutors with the Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Task Force review the often decades old cases with fresh eyes, they see patterns not noticed in the past: Rapists that targeted only vulnerable victims. Rapists preyed on people in predictable places, like bus stops. They see the missed opportunities over time to catch a rapist before they preyed on more victims.

Number of serial cases likely more

The roughly 600 reported rapes linked to serial offenders don't include additional sex crimes convictions not directly connected to the more than 3,200 rape kits already tested at state crime labs.

Adding in those previous convictions, between 30 and 45 percent of the cases related to sexual assault kit testing in Cuyahoga County involve a potential serial rapist, according to a Plain Dealer analysis and data collected by the task force.

And more will likely be identified with 1,000 or more Cuyahoga County rape kits are still to be tested.

The benefit of hindsight

Law enforcement officials say the rape kit testing and follow-up investigations by a joint state, city and county task force have taken an unprecedented number of violent criminals off the streets, "one man crime waves," as Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty often quips.

The missed opportunities can be tough to tolerate, but viewed as "lessons" the cases could provide a road map for improving how the community responds to sex crimes.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the first lesson is that there's value in testing every rape kit.

Statewide testing of more than 6,500 kits has led to more than 2,400 hits in criminal databases. And in more than 520 instances, the rape kit evidence has linked to one - or as many as 15 - other serious crimes, according to state Bureau of Criminal Investigation statistics.

"To keep a rape kit out of the database is just totally irresponsible at this point," DeWine said.

Preventing a pattern



With what testing has found, it's indisputable that all sex crimes reports should be viewed as part of a potential pattern and not an isolated attack, McGinty said.

In the past, he said, detectives often had to focus on the immediate report in front of them and not the potential future crimes. They investigated allegations instead of building cases against potential rapists based on their behavior.

"It's hard to look at the big picture when you are overwhelmed and understaffed," McGinty said.

Going forward, he's vowed to make that job ferreting out serial offenders little easier by creating a countywide searchable database filed with details on reported sex crimes - the kind that television crime drama-watching public thinks already exists.

Such a tool would include suspect descriptions, victim demographics, locations and times of attacks. And, it would catalog specific details on the how a victim was approached, what language was used, weapons used and unique details about the sexual nature of the attack.

McGinty's office has hired researchers at Case Western University's Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education to help figure out what information would be useful to collect to help with apprehension and prosecutions.

Though technology such as DNA and databases can make some connections, they can't replace the "good old fashioned shoe leather detective work," he said.

Jim Markey, a retired Phoenix sex crimes supervisor who now consults and trains police with Investigative Lead LLC, said that doing thorough investigations of suspects should be at the core of rape investigations.

"Once a previous case pops up, that is a huge red flag," Markey said. But because of manpower or resource issues it unfortunately sometimes falls by the wayside, he said. But that's why good supervision and oversight of case work is needed.

Deeper investigations need to become the standard, McGinty said Law enforcement can't be "silly enough to think they were lucky enough to catch a guy on his first time."

DeWine said the state also will continue to look for ways to use data to help police departments discern or even predict patterns in specific cases and also to look for overall ways for law enforcement to catch serial sex offenders more efficiently.

Victim participation central to catching serial rapists

Many of the cases reopened as part of the rape kit testing project originally received scant investigation, whether a suspect was known or not.

Often cases were closed after detectives said they could not locate victims or that victims didn't want to cooperate, therefore leaving "no further investigative leads."

Cleveland police officials in the past have said a lack of manpower and resources contributed less-than-stellar follow-up in some cases.

Sgt. Ali Pillow said the department's Crime Analysis unit a the county Fusion Center both help sexual assault investigators identify trends, patterns and possible related crimes over geographic areas and spans of time.

But the staffing issue still exists.

The Police Executive Research Forum recommended last year that the department add four more detectives to its Sex Crimes & Child abuse unit, bringing the total to at least 18. It also suggested that the department have more detectives available overnight when most rapes are reported.

The unit, based on the recommendations, is still understaffed.

Both the city sex crimes unit and the task force have made efforts to better include victim advocacy into what they do.

Cleveland sex crimes has a Cleveland Rape Crisis Center advocate working alongside detectives, which has increased victim support in newly reported cases.

The task force also has dedicated several prosecutor-employed advocates that help notify victims of DNA hits in their decades old cases, and to keep them informed and refer them for counseling. Those advocates, however, are quickly getting overwhelmed with the number of victims they are expected to help.

Assistant County Prosecutor Mary Weston said locating and supporting victims with services is vital to successful prosecutions. "There is no excuse for not finding these victims and taking their cases forward," she said.

Are others seeing serial rape patterns?

Other cities in the midst of testing large caches of rape kits, such as Detroit, are also seeing serial rape patterns emerge.

After testing 1,600 of 11,000 total sexual assault kits located in an evidence warehouse, about 100 serial rape suspects were identified, according to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office. Ten additional cases were linked to already- convicted serial rapists.

What Detroit has seen that Cleveland hasn't a wider geographic web of connected crimes. Rapists identified as part of Detroit's testing initiative were linked to similar sex crimes in 23 other states.

So far, rape suspects identified in Cleveland have mainly stayed closer to home, within Ohio, though as more cities begin to test backlogs, more cross-state connections could occur.

Recent testing of thousands of rape kits in Houston and Memphis, Tenn. has also started to reveal serial rape patterns either missed or not fully realized by law enforcement.

Memphis officials reported this week that 57 percent of suspects they've identified were linked to multiple rape cases.