DNA breakthrough leads to arrest in sexual assault of 13-year-old Cambridge girl more than 20 years later

Law enforcement authorities announced Thursday that they arrested a suspect in connection with a decades-old burglary and sexual assault case following an investigative breakthrough. 

Roger W. Reddick, Jr., 41, of Cambridge, allegedly entered the room of a 13-year-old girl and assaulted her in 2000. He faces three counts of rape of a child with force in the Cambridge District Court, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office announced. 

The breakthrough that led to Reddick’s arrest was a result of work done in the specialized Cold Case Unit within Ryan’s office. 

“This case is every parent’s nightmare – a violent stranger entering your home in the middle of the night and assaulting your child in their bed. When I started the Cold Case Unit, I made a commitment that we would take every opportunity to use advances in technology to proceed with previously uncharged cases. This case is a perfect example of that work and I am grateful that we are able to begin the process of holding the defendant accountable for the events of that evening,” Ryan said in a statement. 

A man entered the victim’s house in Cambridge during the early morning hours of Oct. 18, 2000. The victim lived with her parents, but the man quickly reached her second-floor bedroom and rushed to the victim’s bed. He covered her mouth and ordered her to be quiet, officials said. 

 The victim was then sexually assaulted. The intruder asked her how old she was during the attack, and she told him truthfully that she was 13. Eventually, the victim recognized the opportunity to escape and ran out of her bedroom, screaming for help. The intruder followed her out of the room, ran past her down a flight of stairs, and out of the house, according to Ryan’s office. 

Cambridge Police officers responded to the scene and searched the neighborhood. The intruder was not found. Investigators searched the home to gather evidence and look for anything out of place. They found a jewelry box that had been moved, and recovered a fingerprint from the box.

In 2009, police identified the print as having been left by Reddick, but they “did not at that point have sufficient corroboration to charge him,” officials said. 

At the scene, police also recovered a pair of green patterned men’s boxer shorts that had been left at the foot of the victim’s bed. Police confirmed that the boxers did not belong to the victim or to any members of her family. They also confirmed that the boxers had not been there when the victim went to sleep. 

Chemists at the State Police Crime Laboratory tried to develop a DNA profile from the boxers, but could not create one that was eligible to be uploaded to the national DNA database, officials said. 

The Cold Case Unit began examining the case again in September 2022 in conjunction with the crime lab. Due to “advances in technology that had occurred since the original testing,” investigators were able to identify Reddick as the source of the DNA found on the boxers, officials said.

Reddick was a Cambridge resident at the time of the alleged attack, Ryan’s office said. He lived less than half a mile from the victim’s house. 

“This case represents how committed the Cambridge Police Department is to bringing justice to survivors and their families, and how diligent we will work with our partners to ensure violent criminals are identified and apprehended, no matter how long it takes,” Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow said in a statement.  “We will always be here for survivors and will never give up trying to find and prosecute the people behind such horrendous acts.”