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A man who police say raped seven females from 1994 to 1999 is now behind bars.
Dean Allen Strunk, 48, lived on Celestial Circle in Liberty Township.
Neighbors described him as a "typical guy next door raising his family." Strunk has a five-year-old daughter.
Strunk is currently charged with only one of the rapes, but all seven rapes are linked by evidence, police said.
These are the seven linked rape cases:
07/07/94 - 15-year-old girl raped near Blanchester
12/16/94 - 15-year-old girl raped near Blanchester
04/13/98 - 14-year-old girl raped in Mason
07/25/98 - 11-year-old girl raped in Mason
04/14/99 - 26-year-old woman raped in Mason
07/25/99 - 5-year-old girl raped in Montgomery
10/06/99 - Juvenile female raped in Colerain Township
Pattern in Attacks?
One of the fascinating clues investigators examined was the dates the rapist struck. In some cases, it was like clockwork.
As you can see from the above list, three of the rapes took place in July of three different years, two of those on july 25th, almost like anniversary attacks.
Two others occured in the months of April, separated by just one day.
Two more rapes occured in October and December.
Police haven't said if they've figured out any connection.
Dean Strunk was a single father who had full custody of his five-year-old daughter. They lived on a quiet neighborhood in Liberty Township where neighbors are in shock over his arrest.
"My first reaction when it was rape was tears. I'd let Dean in my house at 2 a.m. if he knocked. I never would have seen this type of behavior from him," said Susan Werner, Strunk's neighbor.
"We've had Dean over for dinner. He's the typical guy next door raising his family," she said.
Werner met Strunk two years ago when he moved into a duplex a few doors down on Celestial Circle. His daughter goes to the same day care as her son.
"He worships his daughter. He's the kind of dad who is tying her shoelaces or giving her hugs taking her for walks on her little truck that she rides," Werner said.
Werner speculated that the birth of his daughter may have prompted Strunk to end his alleged rape spree.
9News is told Strunk's daughter is staying with Strunk's parents.
http://www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/07/28/mason.html
Other rape cases against Strunk will go to a grand jury, police said. The seven female victims were ages 5 to 26.
Mason police had been investigating three rapes in their city for the past six years. They said a single suspect's DNA had been found in the Mason cases in 1998 and 1999 and in rapes in Montgomery and Colerain Township in 1999.
More than 300 DNA tests were conducted in search of a match.
Then came two breaks in the investigation this year.
First, DNA linked a 1994 rape in the Blanchester area to the other five.
Detective Scott Doughman, the lead investigator in the Mason cases, contacted the Warren County Sheriff's Department and began investigating rapes in the Blanchester area.
Doughman and Blanchester police then discovered a seventh victim linked by the same DNA.
Crime analysts from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI&I) pulled together evidence from all seven cases, police said. http://www.channelcincinnati.com/news/4781284/detail.html
http://wkrc.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=770C1F2E-2296-4503-931F-AEC713519370
Dean Allen Strunk, 48, lived on Celestial Circle in Liberty Township.
Neighbors described him as a "typical guy next door raising his family." Strunk has a five-year-old daughter.
Strunk is currently charged with only one of the rapes, but all seven rapes are linked by evidence, police said.
These are the seven linked rape cases:
07/07/94 - 15-year-old girl raped near Blanchester
12/16/94 - 15-year-old girl raped near Blanchester
04/13/98 - 14-year-old girl raped in Mason
07/25/98 - 11-year-old girl raped in Mason
04/14/99 - 26-year-old woman raped in Mason
07/25/99 - 5-year-old girl raped in Montgomery
10/06/99 - Juvenile female raped in Colerain Township
Pattern in Attacks?
One of the fascinating clues investigators examined was the dates the rapist struck. In some cases, it was like clockwork.
As you can see from the above list, three of the rapes took place in July of three different years, two of those on july 25th, almost like anniversary attacks.
Two others occured in the months of April, separated by just one day.
Two more rapes occured in October and December.
Police haven't said if they've figured out any connection.
Dean Strunk was a single father who had full custody of his five-year-old daughter. They lived on a quiet neighborhood in Liberty Township where neighbors are in shock over his arrest.
"My first reaction when it was rape was tears. I'd let Dean in my house at 2 a.m. if he knocked. I never would have seen this type of behavior from him," said Susan Werner, Strunk's neighbor.
"We've had Dean over for dinner. He's the typical guy next door raising his family," she said.
Werner met Strunk two years ago when he moved into a duplex a few doors down on Celestial Circle. His daughter goes to the same day care as her son.
"He worships his daughter. He's the kind of dad who is tying her shoelaces or giving her hugs taking her for walks on her little truck that she rides," Werner said.
Werner speculated that the birth of his daughter may have prompted Strunk to end his alleged rape spree.
9News is told Strunk's daughter is staying with Strunk's parents.
http://www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/07/28/mason.html
Other rape cases against Strunk will go to a grand jury, police said. The seven female victims were ages 5 to 26.
Mason police had been investigating three rapes in their city for the past six years. They said a single suspect's DNA had been found in the Mason cases in 1998 and 1999 and in rapes in Montgomery and Colerain Township in 1999.
More than 300 DNA tests were conducted in search of a match.
Then came two breaks in the investigation this year.
First, DNA linked a 1994 rape in the Blanchester area to the other five.
Detective Scott Doughman, the lead investigator in the Mason cases, contacted the Warren County Sheriff's Department and began investigating rapes in the Blanchester area.
Doughman and Blanchester police then discovered a seventh victim linked by the same DNA.
Crime analysts from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI&I) pulled together evidence from all seven cases, police said. http://www.channelcincinnati.com/news/4781284/detail.html
http://wkrc.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=770C1F2E-2296-4503-931F-AEC713519370