DNA breakthrough helps Broward detectives ID suspect in brutal assault, closing 1987 cold case

Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) detectives closed a nearly 40-year-old sexual assault cold case Sunday.

Gregory Rollison was in prison serving a nine-year sentence for attempted murder in California when investigators matched his DNA to a newly developed DNA profile of the suspect in a 1987 attack on an 85-year-old woman in Deerfield Beach.

"Not only was (Rollison) in the victim's apartment but he was the person in fact who had tied her up, beaten her and sexually assaulted her," BSO Detective Andrew Gianino said in a video released by BSO Monday.

The day of the attack, a man scaled the side of an apartment building on North Federal Highway, investigators said.  

The man tried and failed to enter one apartment, investigators said.  Then, the suspect slipped through the 85-year-old woman's balcony door, investigators said.  

Twice, the suspect beat and sexually assaulted the victim at knife point, investigators said.  

In between the attacks, the suspect stole $25 out of the victim's purse, investigators said.  She could not positively identify her attacker, investigators said.

Detectives had suspicions and the name of a possible suspect: Gregory Rollison, investigators said.  However, detectives did not have evidence to charge Rollison at the time, investigators said.

The victim died years later.

Gianino did not give up, though. Advancements in DNA technology and grants are helping BSO's Crime Lab re-examine cold cases.  

In July, the lab identified a woman's remains pulled from the Everglades in 1983 and determined she died by homicide. That discovery reopened the case, and they are actively searching for the killer.

Gianino also sent evidence back to the lab. Analysts then found a DNA profile for the attacker that matches Rollison, investigators said.

Authorities in California extradited Rollison back to Broward County to face charges for an attack Gianino refused to forget.

"It's so brutal and so disgusting that someone would do that to a poor lady late in her life," Det. Gianino said.