Bloodline Detectives - Episode 20 - The Williamsburg Rapist | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: Tonight, a serial rapist claims four victims near the amusement park, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Virginia.
CODIS, the National DNA databank will be of no help. So when and how will the rapist ever be captured?
It's September 2001, a student's attacked in Williamsburg, Virginia. NATE GREEN: She was scared for her life.
She then decided to be compliant in hopes that it would mitigate any harm that was being done to her.
Beat her up fairly well, too. I mean she had some, it wasn't just a rape. She had some pretty significant physical injuries.
LANG CRAIGHILL: She had dirt and leaves on her. She had no shoes on. She had some red marks on her face and her neck.
NARRATOR: Within months, there's a second violent attack. Based on the description and the circumstances,
we were pretty sure it would be the same person that had raped the other young lady a few months before.
Kind of sent chills up my back, honestly. I was quite disturbed by it. I had never been through something like this
and I thought we were under attack. NARRATOR: Despite an extensive investigation,
the perpetrator evades detection and accumulates more victims. LANG CRAIGHILL: Two foreign females came in contact
with a man that pulled up in a pickup truck and offered them a ride. And one of the girls end up having report of a rape
with her. NATE GREEN: Now, we have this individual involved in a third crime. LANG CRAIGHILL: We had some guy that
was able to evade the police and repeatedly commit violent crimes and avoid detection.
We start to, I guess, lose all hope that we're going to be able to identify this individual.
NARRATOR: A serial rapist creates a wave of anxiety and fear in Williamsburg, Virginia.
This is the story of four innocent victims. Their attacker who eluded justice for years
and how Bloodline Detectives use revolutionary DNA methods to finally make the hunter become the hunted.
I'm Nancy Grace, and this is Bloodline Detectives. [THEME MUSIC] September 12, 2001, police in Williamsburg, Virginia
got a 911 call. LANG CRAIGHILL: The caller was a female that had knocked on the door of a residence
in the Zelkova neighborhood. It's a small kind of community off of Parkway drive,
and reported that she was raped. NARRATOR: Patrol officers are dispatched to the residential address to interview the victim.
There was the lady that called the phone for the female, and a female who was initially not very communicative.
EDWARD SCHNEIDER: Pants had been pulled off. She had been in the woods so she was all
covered with leaves and such. Because it was September, the leaves were falling.
And she was very disoriented and very upset. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: The victim is still petrified.
But officers gently uncover the events surrounding the attack. NATE GREEN: This young woman who was an employee
at Busch Gardens, working there on their cultural exchange program. Every year Busch Gardens will bring a whole slew
of college-aged kids that will come here from Europe, and they live in this converted motel.
They call it the Student Village. LANG CRAIGHILL: English was her second language,
but she was from Hungary. She said that she had been walking home from the Food Line back toward
the international village. LANG CRAIGHILL: She walked down the Parkway Drive where this occurred.
And on the way back from Food Line, the grocery store, she was approached by a man.
NATE GREEN: Someone had come up from behind her, grabbed her over the mouth and forehead,
and ended up pulling her into the woods, and sexually assaulting her. She was scared for her life.
She was willing to fight to a point, and then when she realized that that was not
going to be successful, she then decided to be compliant in hopes that it would mitigate any harm
that was being done to her. She suffered some scrapes and abrasions to her wrist,
to her neck, to her-- there was redness and bruising around her eyes and around her forehead as well.
She had a fanny pack on that he ended up finding when he disrobed her and took the contents of it, which
included her passport and cash. NARRATOR: Stunned from the attack, the victim gradually collects herself
and runs to a neighbor's house. Once she felt it was safe and he was no longer, you know, hovering above her or behind her,
she ran to an apartment complex that was somewhat adjacent to those woods and went to the first building
she could find. PATRICK KELLEY: This is actually pretty important than any rape case, is that she makes what's
called a fresh complaint. In other words, you know, she didn't wait two or three days to come up and say, hey, I was raped
or something or just go back home and cry or anything. She ran straight to this other house.
NARRATOR: Officers believe the victim has given them vital information for now, and they
escort her to the hospital. NATE GREEN: The paramedics take her to the hospital where
a SANE nurse meets her and begins the process of collecting evidence from her. And that's how they were able to determine
some DNA from the person who had raped her. The nurses are trained not only to do the examination
but also to talk to the persons that are in that position that she was in, and try to help us obtain
all the details that we missed. NATE GREEN: The PERK kit that was collected by the SANE nurse
was sent off as well as other items that were found at the scene. And what they're looking for is some trace evidence
of who possibly could have done this to her. NARRATOR: While the victim is treated,
detectives visit the scene of the crime. We had to find the location where it actually happens.
It was nighttime initially, and she had left from the area so we had to go back and find the scene
where it occurred to see if maybe there's clues left. At that location, they found a shoe
and they did find her socks. And they found the pair of underwear that she had previously described as having been torn
from her, and they did find that underwear torn in a area of leaves and woods. There were some physical signs that people had been there
and laying on the ground, like the leaves had been pushed around and pushed away.
It looked like that was consistent with what had happened. NARRATOR: A full investigation is launched
with a canvas of the area and a sketch of the attacker released. She did describe this individual is not
skinny, not fat, but sporty. An athletic built, and she said he was strong enough
that he overpowered her and was able to pull her into the woods despite her trying to fight him off.
She did give the description of a Black male, 5'10 or so, slim build. NATE GREEN: Even from her description,
I think the police knew early on that she probably wasn't going to be able to identify this individual because of the way
he had controlled her and stayed behind her or stayed in kind of in darker areas.
So they were looking for some biological evidence that could help them identify who did this to her.
[MUSIC PLAYING] EDWARD SCHNEIDER: We did a composite description and we put it out there for everybody.
We, in fact, put out there more than a few times throughout the years. FRANK GREEN: They'd have looked for people with similar MOs
who were not behind bars. They would certainly knock on a lot of doors. NARRATOR: With no other immediate leads,
investigators are hoping the rape kit sample will yield a hit. The results were, as far as the investigation goes,
outstanding. They were able to find very clear, more biological evidence than we get in most cases.
And so they were able to develop a very clear, very unique DNA identifier for whoever
had sexually assaulted her. EDWARD SCHNEIDER: It did go into CODIS. And at the first time it went in, we didn't get anything.
There was no known suspect at that point. NARRATOR: With no solid lays, the case gradually winds down.
But then the attacker claims another victim. We knew the DNA of this offender but we just didn't know his name.
NARRATOR: The good news is that investigators have DNA of the rapist. The bad news, they can't find a match.
Just as the investigation begins to wind down, suddenly the perpetrator strikes again.
That's next on Bloodline Detectives. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's March 2002, and investigators in Williamsburg,
Virginia are searching for a sex predator who six months earlier rapes an international student
in a surprise attack. NATE GREEN: They were able to find very clear, more biological evidence
than we get in most cases. EDWARD SCHNEIDER: It did go into CODIS. And at the first time it went in, we didn't get anything.
There was no known suspect at that point. NARRATOR: Then on March 23rd, police got a call.
Another student has been attacked in the same area. EDWARD SCHNEIDER: A student from one of the local colleges
was walking home late one night. It was a rather cold night. After she walked through campus, she was going down Jamestown
Road, heading towards her home. As she was walking, she heard somebody behind her.
And she termed it as somebody running. And then as it caught her attention, the subject slowed down and started to walk
and then caught up to her. He then engaged in some conversation and talked to about, she said how cold it was that night.
And he had told her, well, I can warm you up. And then they continued. And at that point, he put his hand over her mouth.
LANG CRAIGHILL: His hand ended up being positioned by her face and she bit him. Beat him on the hand hard enough to draw blood.
He released her and she was able to run into the roadway where a car was coming down the road and stopped that car.
The person that stopped end up calling the police. And she gave a description that was pretty consistent with what
the victim told us about what he looked like, his clothing and general appearance.
NATE GREEN: This was a situation that was eerily similar to the incident that the police had been investigating
from September of 2001. LANG CRAIGHILL: In this case, she was American. She was a college student.
She was similar in age and height and weight and general physical characteristics
to the first victim. NARRATOR: Investigators interview the victim and search the area where the attack occurred.
She described where he ran to and we look for him. We also followed the direction where he went.
Ended up calling a dog out. EDWARD SCHNEIDER: The officers on scene were able to help her out, start getting statements,
and they got initial description of the subject wearing a red jacket with a white stripe.
One of the local college police officers heard what was going on, came to assist,
and actually found the jacket a short distance away from where the attack occurred.
PATRICK KELLEY: He ran across Jamestown Road into a church parking lot right there,
and took his coat off and left. But it was covered in blood and he took his coat off and just
left it in the parking lot. In this case, there wasn't a completed rape. There wasn't a robbery.
There was just an attempted abduction. But based on the description and the circumstances,
we were pretty sure it would be the same person that had raped the other young lady a few months before.
NATE GREEN: Once that is sent to the lab, same thing as the September case. It's an excellent sample, the lab
is able to identify the DNA profile of this individual. But this individual is not in any known database.
And so they can't identify it by a name, but what they can do is say, this is the same DNA profile as your suspect
on the September 2001 case. NARRATOR: The second attack creates a wave of fear throughout the student community.
LANG CRAIGHILL: There was a lot of fear. There's a lot of concern about it occurring again.
There was a lot of anxiety put toward the police department for us to figure out who he was.
We did have the feel of a serial rapist that we did not know going around our community
and attacking young women. EDWARD SCHNEIDER: And when it came back that there was a match, it kind of sent chills up my back,
honestly. I was quite disturbed by it. I thought we were under attack, quite honestly.
I had never been through something like this and I felt very compelled that this case need
to be worked for our community. NARRATOR: Now, police have a serial sex predator on the loose and the investigation
kicks into high gear. We looked at recent arrest data with new offenses that might either
show the same sort of crime but something that could be like a precursor crime or an associated crime,
like a lesser offense like a stalking or a peeping tom. Possibly a trespassing, or even just a complaint that
didn't lead to a charge of, you know, of a suspicious nature that might seem like somebody
hunting for a victim. NARRATOR: The perpetrator continues to avoid detection and appears to have gone quiet.
But then there's a third, even more brazen attack. LANG CRAIGHILL: It was on a summer evening in 2006 of July.
Two foreign, younger females were walking from a bar in the city of Williamsburg
called The Library Tavern, and walking back to their lodging. And they were taking a shortcut through Bypass
Road, which is in York County. NATE GREEN: It was a little bit different in that it
involved a vehicle as opposed to walking along the side of the road. LANG CRAIGHILL: They came in contact
with a man that pulled up in a pickup truck and offered them a ride. And they ended up going with the guy in the pickup truck.
And he took a turn that they hadn't asked him to make. And one of the girls was able to bail out
of the truck and while it was moving, jump out of the truck and escape with minor injuries.
The other female wasn't able to escape. The next day, she was found with injuries far away from where
she was supposed to be at. Another part of Williamsburg, and ended up having a report of a rape with her.
NATE GREEN: The culprit in that York County case left the biological evidence as well, and that evidence
was sent to the lab. And now, we have this individual involved in a third crime.
The, again, the DNA profile is an exact match. NARRATOR: The boldness of the third attack
is deeply disturbing for investigators. Williamsburg is a sleepy town where we want to be able to walk along the wooded roads in
this community and feel safe. And we didn't feel safe because we knew this individual is
still out there. I believe that sexual assault is horribly unreported. Even when it's not someone you know,
even when it is a stranger. The prospects of talking to the police about this horrible event, the prospects
of being put in front of a jury and telling the story of what happened to you, that's not something that I think people
get excited about. And so I think there are a number of women who have been sexually assaulted, who just live with it
rather than sharing it with anyone that helps bring justice to that act. NARRATOR: Another investigation is launched
into the latest attack. But once again, detectives hit a dead end. We now have a vehicle description
that we could superimpose with our physical description. And by the way, the physical description was very similar.
These victims reported that the suspect was wearing eyeglasses like our second victim did.
EDWARD SCHNEIDER: We then, you know, we started working with York County and saying, hey, listen,
this is what we have. And we started going back through old cases and trying to just drum up some more leads on this.
LANG CRAIGHILL: It was sort of like, you know, the Williamsburg's boogeyman. You know, we had some guy that was able to evade the police
and repeatedly commit violent crimes and avoid detection. So I wanted to say, not on my watch, you know.
I wanted to be able to figure out who the guy was if I could. NATE GREEN: The number of leads start
to diminish we start to, I guess, lose all hope that we're going to be able to identify this individual.
NARRATOR: For another six years, there's no movement in the case. But in 2012, a new DNA method becomes available.
Can it finally help police solve the crime? EDWARD SCHNEIDER: Hey, we got it-- we got a new idea,
and it's called Familial DNA and we're going to see what maybe we can do with this.
NARRATOR: A serial rapist remains on the loose. Three innocent victims traumatized by their ordeals.
And investigation goes cold for six years. But as we see next, Bloodline Detectives
revive the hunt for the rapist with a brand new forensic weapon. [MUSIC PLAYING]
It's 2012, Williamsburg, Virginia Police are still trying to identify a sex predator
who's responsible for three separate rapes between 2001 and 2006. It did have the feel of a serial rapist
that we did not know going around our community and attacking young women. NARRATOR: But this year, a new DNA searching tool
becomes available. LANG CRAIGHILL: I called one of the scientists from the DNA lab
that I'd gotten to know over the years of doing this, named Bob Scanlon, and I asked him if he could help me figure out
for sure if this one particular offender was in the databank and if we could eliminate him.
And he did that. And then he asked me if I was open to possibly participating in a project.
I would see Lang crossing the halls and we just started talking, goes, hey, we got it-- we got a new idea,
and it's called Familial DNA and we're going to see what maybe we can do with this.
ROBERT SCANLON: A familial search is a deliberate search that is not looking for a direct match to the DNA,
but rather it's looking for an indirect type of association. Either parent offspring type relationship,
or a sibling type relationship. NARRATOR: The Williamsburg investigation team makes the decision to utilize it in the hope
it will identify new leads. NATE GREEN: My initial reaction was this is going to be it.
They're going to be able to give us a report and that's going to lead to us making an arrest.
And science is going to be the hero of this case. Lang felt very good about this.
And I know we kept in touch with Bob Scanlon through the years, and Bob was another one who really
wanted to see this case solved. This was a collaborative team effort with everybody involved.
NATE GREEN: We get a call that we have a strong candidate here. We can say the name, but just know,
it is not this individual. NARRATOR: Finally, a hit on the database, and investigators get a name.
We came up with Kenneth Holloway. Mr. Holloway, Kenneth Holloway, could not have committed these crimes.
I believe he was actually incarcerated at the time that some of these incidents took place.
They're able to identify a number of brothers that Kenneth Holloway has. They're able to pretty quickly eliminate some
of those brothers, either because of age, how old they would have been in 2001, 2006.
They are also able to eliminate some because of where they were located at those times.
There was a brother that was in Europe, I believe, stationed in the army. And so they were able to eliminate all of the brothers
except for one. Tyrone Holloway appeared to be the most likely person. He also was the person who lived closest to the Williamsburg
jurisdiction at the time. NARRATOR: To prove he is the perpetrator, however, detectives must obtain a sample of his DNA.
NATE GREEN: They knew that they could not use what information had been provided by the lab
to just get a warrant. We had made that agreement. So they were going to have to keep working this lead.
Their idea of working it was to observe him and try to find a time that he discarded something that could be
usable evidence, some piece of garbage that would not be the subject of a search warrant because he had thrown it away,
but rather they could collect it and then send that item to the lab and see if they could get a result.
Not enough of the familial DNA, but rather a direct result from something that they knew Mr.
Tyrone Holloway had discarded. They've modeled what they did after what happened
with the Grim Sleeper in California where they followed him around, got a piece of slice, piece
of pizza that he discarded and were able to get a DNA sample that way. EDWARD SCHNEIDER: They tracked him down to South Carolina.
They were following him around, trying to catch up with him to get something he would discard.
LANG CRAIGHILL: We watched him throw a small, like a plastic bag you might get at Walmart full of trash
into a dumpster. And I climbed in the dumpster and pulled the bag out. s was a fast food cup with a straw in it
and stuff like that. It wasn't good news, though. They developed a female profile on a two or three of the items
that I submitted and then a mixture on one. They basically told us there was not enough there,
that we were on the right track but they couldn't definitively say yes or no. NARRATOR: For bloodline detectives, frustration mounts.
Their surveillance of the suspect is getting investigators very close to obtaining
the DNA they need, but still not close enough. But as we see next, their determination to get that DNA
saves the investigation. [MUSIC PLAYING] December 2012, investigators from Williamsburg, Virginia
returned to South Carolina determined to catch the serial rapist who's been on the run for six years.
After weeks of surveillance, followed by repeated searches of the suspect's trash, they're close to obtaining
what they need. GREG RILEY: We made arrangements to go back a second time. At this point, we knew where he worked.
We knew where he was living. And so we continued to surveil him in between his residence
and his place of work. LANG CRAIGHILL: He went through a drive-through of a Zaxby's restaurant.
As he leaves there, he ran a light and I didn't push it. I let it go because I thought he was going to work.
Well, when I went to his work, his car wasn't there. I was in a position he parked like right behind me,
I could see him clearly. Didn't have anything in his hands, he went right the front door, and didn't
look like he dropped anything. So I went and looked anyway. I went and looked in the trashcan by the door.
And I went and looked at his windows and of his car. GREG RILEY: We went up to the vehicle.
We didn't see the meal bag or any of the remnants of that. What we did see, some garment, racks that
were in the back of his car. So we looked up where you can get a central home clothing
racks, and essentially, we found it was could be any big box store. It was like Walmart was listed, Lowe's, Kmart, like pretty
much any of the big box stores. NATE GREEN: Investigator Craighill, Investigator Riley
spend the next few hours going around to these locations to try and find where did he buy these.
GREG RILEY: We searched for approximately an hour every store in the area that could
possibly contain these racks. And we were just unable to figure out where he had gone.
He had been to Pizza Hut a couple of times for dinner. Well, we went to the same pizza, like right up the street
from this publishing center where we worked, and we have had the same waitress. Again, I'm not sure I can ever understand how Lang had
the instincts to do this, but he asked his waitress and he shows her a picture of the boxes,
and says, have you ever seen anything like these? Do you know where I could buy these around here?
And she says, well, they might be sold at the Kmart. They had already checked a Kmart, the Kmart
that was on the internet. GREG RILEY: She said, why would you go there? There's one just around the corner.
And [LAUGHING] we were kind of stunned, [LAUGHING] you know. LANG CRAIGHILL: So we went and looked,
and the trash had been pulled-- there was two cans right in front of the doors, and the trash has been pulled.
It was sitting outside of the cans, like it was waiting to be collected. And I went to one can and Greg went to the other one.
I heard Greg make this like little, ah [LAUGHING] noise when he opened the lid of it.
And right on top of the not very much refuse was a Zaxby bag. GREG RILEY: I looked down and the only thing in the garbage
can was a Zaxby's bag with the discarded meal and the receipt which was timestamped, and we knew instantly we had what
we were coming to look for. I went inside the store to talk to the management. They provided us with video surveillance
showing him entering the store, purchasing the garment racks, and leaving the store.
In all my years, it's the most amazing piece of police work and instincts and doggedness
to just stay after it. And they were rewarded. We were rewarded. NARRATOR: Police send the material back to Virginia
for forensic analysis. I couldn't get a hold of Bob so I called my lieutenant from investigations who does forensics,
and I asked for advice on packaging the stuff, preservation, and he said, basically, ice it.
EDWARD SCHNEIDER: They do submitted the evidence where it would then get sent to the Department of Forensic Science
where the scientists would then do a DNA test on it, try to collect off of it. NATE GREEN: The DNA on those chicken bones
matches the DNA on the blood, on the coat, matches the DNA from the semen, from the rape in the woods.
This is the guy. NARRATOR: Investigators immediately began preparations for Holloway's arrest.
LANG CRAIGHILL: But essentially, he was gone. Every place we look for him, we couldn't find him.
We then went through the process to track him by his phone, by his cell phone, to figure out where he might be.
NATE GREEN: We started pinging his phone, and wouldn't you know it, he was no longer in South Carolina.
They had gone the wrong direction. He was now north of Virginia in Philadelphia.
LANG CRAIGHILL: We were concerned that maybe he was hunting. You know, maybe he's doing what he does.
But we realized we had absolutely no idea what he was driving. Every vehicle we knew about, we had accounted for
and it was in Marion. The following morning, we were able to obtain a ping that was within 7 meters of a hotel in Philadelphia.
We continued to monitor his pings. One of the pings showed him at a repair shop.
We called Philadelphia PD. They sent an officer, and Mr. Holloway was placed under arrest.
They asked him if he wanted to speak to the investigators from Williamsburg. He said yes.
They transported him to their local jail facility and we made the long drive from South Carolina to Philadelphia.
LANG CRAIGHILL: They took him on custody, and we had charged him at that point with abduction
but attempted to file rape and robbery. NARRATOR: Williamsburg investigators arrive in Philadelphia to interview Holloway.
NATE GREEN: He was conniving. I could just see the wheels were turning on how could
I explain away these facts. NARRATOR: Almost always at a moment like this, investigators wonder what kind of suspect
they're going to make, what will they learn about him, will he confess to the crimes.
Next, on Bloodline Detectives, we get the answers to those questions. [MUSIC PLAYING]
On December 23, 2012, Tyrone Holloway is tracked down and arrested all the way to Philadelphia
for raping three women in Williamsburg, Virginia between 2001 and 2006. We're about to get the full picture on Tyrone Holloway
and hear his side, too. I think he really thought he got away with it and he was never going to get caught
and he would never be caught. NARRATOR: So who is Tyrone Holloway? And how has he not come to police attention before?
GREG RILEY: Mr. Holloway's about 5'8, Black male, rather thin, wore glasses. Not a rather imposing figure.
NATE GREEN: He is intelligent. He is manipulative. He's conniving. NARRATOR: Williamsburg detectives
who have been working the case over a decade finally get to question him. But we decided to be not direct about how
much we actually did know. Not mentioning anything about forensics but to go with essentially that he was accused of a rape
by someone that had seen his composite and identified him. He acted like he didn't know anything
that we were talking about. I even, at one point, showed him a photograph of one of the victims,
the first victim actually. And he told me he remembered her. He told me that was one of the young ladies
that he had sex with at some point. I don't know why I'm here, you know, why are you guys doing
this, but in the course of our discussion, he did make some statements that implicated him in the crimes.
We were advised to arrest at that point based on that amount of evidence with that type of charge.
Once he was charged, they went and took an official sample, you know, with the buccal swabs
and whatever. And, you know, went back and ran it again. NARRATOR: The swab comes back a 100% match.
And Holloway's brought to Williamsburg to stand trial. [MUSIC PLAYING] NATE GREEN: Our strongest and most serious case
was the September 12th rape that took place in the woods. I made the decision that we would split the prosecution
into two stages. He was arrested on both assaults. The one in September from 2001, as well as
the assault and the attempted rape from 2006. We went forward on the preliminary hearing
for the 2006 incident so that we could be sure to hold him over for a trial in the circuit court.
Once we were able to do that in circuit court, I indicted the case from 2001. So we did a preliminary hearing from the 2006 case,
but the trial was on the 2001 case. NARRATOR: On December 18, 2013, the trial for the 2001 attack
begins. NATE GREEN: We had had what's called a motion to suppress. His claim was that he did not throw
the Zaxby's bag of garbage and chicken bones away. LANG CRAIGHILL: They accused the police of improper conduct,
accused me of improper conduct. They tried everything to try to get out of it. And then Mr. Holloway testified,
and that's somewhat rare for a suppression hearing for the defendant to actually testify.
But he did. PATRICK KELLEY: He, all of a sudden, tells me that he finally remembered what happened
that night and that he had sex with this young lady but it had been consensual sex.
And she had only cried rape when he had refused to give her any money after they were done.
And that he had a star witness who was there for the whole thing. LANG CRAIGHILL: They attacked the credibility of the witness.
They made up a scenario which wasn't true, accusing the witness or the victim of improper conduct.
NATE GREEN: He claims that after the act was done, she's demanded money and he told her I don't ever pay for sex.
And that upset her. He then said, because she was upset and he was done, he decided to take her to the Food Line,
give her $20 to go buy him and his friend beer, and as soon as she was out of the car, he drove away.
PATRICK KELLEY: His star witness is a young man named Christopher Chestnut. And when he told me that, I can't remember if I laughed
or not, but I had to tell him, I said, you know, Tyrone, I've known Chris Chestnut for a long time.
I prosecuted him when he was a juvenile. He's simply not a credible person. NARRATOR: The victim who's waited 12 years
and traveled thousands of miles to give her testimony finally faces her attacker and holds him accountable.
NATE GREEN: There's a hope that giving them that opportunity gives them also a sense of closure.
But I'm not obtuse to the fact that I am reopening an old wound and making her talk about this, not
with her friends or with her family, but with 12 strangers, and describe this horribly violent act
that was committed against her. Not only does she have to, you know, recreate the event for other people and strangers,
she had to relive it for herself. She had to face him directly, the person, and accuse him.
It had to be just awful. All survivors of sexual assault that have to come into a courtroom
and relive the worst moments of their life are incredibly brave. She did get emotional, but she maintained her composure.
She was great. NARRATOR: The jury returns after just two hours of deliberations.
LANG CRAIGHILL: When they came out and found him guilty, it was a huge relief. And when they gave the amount of time,
that was also a huge relief. And I'm certain that was a vindication for the victim.
Not just the one that was in court, but the other ladies too, I'm sure. PATRICK KELLEY: What I was surprised about a little bit is
that, you know, after they found him guilty, I was at least somewhat surprised that he only got 33 years.
NARRATOR: So is there justice or closure for the victims? PATRICK KELLEY: When somebody who's gotten up
and they've actually gone through this and testified, and gotten it over with, you know, and gotten some vindication from the sentence,
well, I mean, I suppose there's closure. NATE GREEN: Her life was not going to be defined by the horrible acts of this man on this night.
She didn't forget it. She did not-- it was part of her, but she was able to have it only be a part, not
the sum total of who she is. NARRATOR: Another case that would likely have remained
unsolved has come to a successful conclusion with the help of Familial DNA. The science of familial DNA was invaluable to the lead that
identified Tyrone Holloway. PATRICK KELLEY: 10 out of 10 in importance because that's how they figured out who he was.
NARRATOR: The Williamsburg Police can finally close the case, proud they put Holloway behind bars.
The elation we feel that, you know, our victims now can move on with their lives
and they can have a better life knowing that they're safe and everyone is safe, that's a closure we're looking for.
NARRATOR: The DNA of Tyrone Holloway's incarcerated brother allows investigators to build a case against Tyrone Holloway.
But Holloway's defense can't match the power and certainty of Familial DNA. This technique has become an incredible forensic
breakthrough for investigators. The ability of Bloodline Detectives to pinpoint and navigate family trees of perpetrators
is a significant weapon in their fight for justice and for victim's rights. I'm Nancy Grace.
Thank you for joining us here for Bloodline Detectives. [THEME MUSIC]

Brief Summary

A serial rapist evades capture for years until familial DNA leads to his arrest and conviction in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Key points

The Investigation Begins. After a series of attacks, police launch an extensive investigation to catch the rapist.
A Serial Rapist Strikes. In September 2001, a serial rapist terrorizes Williamsburg, Virginia, leaving victims in fear.
New DNA Methods. In 2012, a new DNA method offers hope in solving the cold cases of multiple rapes.
The DNA Match. The DNA on the chicken bones matches the evidence from the rapes, confirming Holloway's guilt.
Holloway's Arrest. Tyrone Holloway is tracked down and arrested in Philadelphia after years on the run.
Trial Begins. The trial for Holloway's 2001 attack begins, with the victim finally facing her attacker.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She was scared for her life.

NATE GREEN describes the victim's fear during the attack.

0:38WatchApr 1, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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