A former Arizona truck driver connected to several truck stop murders was charged Thursday in the 1997 Ohio rape of a 17-year-old girl, officials said.

Samuel Legg III, 49, was extradited in January to Ohio to face charges in the sexual assault of the teen. Legg was originally a suspect in the rape, but no charges were filed because of concerns over the victim’s credibility, Medina County prosecutor Forrest Thompson told the Associated Press.

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Hours after Legg was charged in the cold-case rape, Legg was indicted in Mahoning County on aggravated murder charges in the April 1992 murder of 43-year-old Sharon Kedzierski, who was found dead with blunt force trauma to the head, face and chest near a Youngstown truck stop.

Investigators in the rape case got a break in December when Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation technicians were looking for matches to DNA in the truck stop murders, Thompson said. Technicians used updated technology to search for a male family member whose DNA profile was similar to the unknown suspect’s. A match was made and a further investigation linked Legg to both crimes.

Legg has also been linked to three other murders through DNA evidence, according to authorities – two others in Ohio and one in Illinois. However, he hasn’t been indicted in those cases.

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Legg pleaded not guilty to the rape charges at an arraignment on Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.