Police say a nurse named Nathan Sutherland is the man who raped a care home patient in a vegetative state and got her pregnant.

Sutherland, 36, was identified as a DNA match to the unnamed 29 year old victim’s baby Tuesday, the Phoenix Police Department said at a press conference Wednesday morning.

Phoenix PD spokesman, Sergeant Tommy Thompson, said that cops worked ‘tirelessly’ to process court-ordered DNA samples following last month’s surprise birth at Hacienda HealthCare in the Arizona city.

Nathan Sutherland was charged with raping the incapacitated woman at Hacienda Healthcare (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)

Pheonix Police Chief Jeri Williams named Nathan Sutherland as the man suspected of raping a woman in a vegetative state and leaving her pregnant during a press conference Wednesday (Picture: ABC13)

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‘From the minute we first became aware of the crime, we have virtually worked non stop seven days a week to resolve this case,’ Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said in announcing the arrest Wednesday morn




Thompson said Sutherland is being booked at Maricopa County Jail on one count of sexual assault and one count of vulnerable adult abuse.

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Sutherland has pleaded the Fifth Amendment, a pillar of United States law that allows suspects to refuse to talk to authorities for fear of incriminating himself, according to Thompson.

During Wednesday morning’s press conference, one reporter raised eyebrows by asking if women had also been DNA tested on suspicion of being the baby’s mother.

According to Thompson, Sutherland was the woman’s nurse at the time of the rape, although he is not believed to have been working a shift at the time of the attack. He was still working at the healthcare facility when the baby was born on December 29, 2018, with staff at Hacienda HealthCare unaware the woman was pregnant until she went into labor.

A nurse on shift at the time helped deliver the baby boy, who police said was born full term, and is now being cared for by his mother’s family, who are members of a Native American tribe.

She has been a patient there for 26 years and received round-the-clock care following a near-drowning accident when she was three-years-old.

The rape happened at Hacienda HealthCare in Phoenix, Arizona, last year, with the woman going into labor on December 29, to the surprise of staff who had no idea she was pregnant

This week, the victim’s family dispelled rumors that the woman was in a coma.

‘The victim’s parents would like to make clear that their daughter is not in a coma. She has significant intellectual disabilities as a result of seizures very early in her childhood,’ said a statement from the family’s attorney.

‘The important thing is that she is a beloved daughter, albeit with significant intellectual disabilities. She has feelings, likes to be read to, enjoys soft music, and is capable of responding to people she is familiar with, especially family.’

Earlier this month, police released the dramatic 911 phone call that a nurse made in panic after she discovered one of the healthcare center’s patients was giving birth.

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