DNA testing leads to arrest in '81 rape

By MIKE BRASSFIELD

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 2, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- An hour before dawn Tuesday, police knocked on the door of the small cinder block apartment on Ninth Avenue N that Willie Oliver shared with his girlfriend.

Oliver, 52, surrendered quietly, protesting his innocence in confused, muted tones.

"The only thing I can say is that this has been a mistake," he said from the back of a patrol car. "I've never even been to Leon County before."

But Leon County authorities say DNA evidence links Oliver to a New Zealand tourist who was raped and left for dead near Tallahassee two decades ago. They say semen from the attack matches Oliver's DNA, kept in a state database of convicted criminals.

Oliver, who lives at 1113 Ninth Ave. N in St. Petersburg and had recently been staying at a Salvation Army shelter, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of sexual battery. He was transferred Wednesday from the Pinellas County Jail to the Leon County Jail.

"I'm quite blown away," Oliver's alleged victim told the Tallahassee Democrat.

"It's amazing that after so long, two and two can still be put together and people can still be held accountable for their crimes," said the woman, now 40 and back in New Zealand.

In 1981, the woman, then 20, had recently graduated from nursing school and rewarded herself with a trip to the United States. She was hitchhiking in Panama City when a man named "James" offered her a ride to New Orleans.

Instead, the woman was raped and nearly strangled with her own overalls. Her attacker smashed her head with a cement slab, then left her in woods near Tallahassee..

Detectives got a break through a new DNA testing technologythat can match minute traces to a suspect with a 1 in several billion probability, said David Coffman of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The victim said she'd return for a trial if necessary.

- Information from the Tallahassee Democrat was used in this report.

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