Police: Suspected ‘Woodline rapist’ linked to 2 Orange County cold case sex battery cases arrested

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando police announced on Tuesday that detectives made an arrest in two sexual battery cold cases that date back nearly 19 years.

Chief Orlando Rolon said detectives arrested a man known as the “Woodline rapist.”

Investigators said the man, identified as Dwight Arthur Harris, attacked and sexually battered at least two women in 2002.

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“He would wait for a woman to return home alone to her apartment after a night out,” a detective said. “As she unlocked her door, he would attack her, drag her to a nearby wooded area, just passed the tree line, and sexually batter her.”

The man faces two counts of sexual battery with a deadly weapon or physical force.

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Police said they are determining if other cases could be linked to the man.

Investigators said the arrest was made possible by ongoing collaborations with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Genetic Genealogy Investigations Team and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

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Investigators said that through DNA testing they were able to narrow it down to four possible people.

Police said Harris had been a suspect in an armed sexual battery off Orange Blossom Trail in 2011 with a known prostitute, but she decided not to press charges.

But police said that case led investigators to look at him in connection to the Woodline case and get a warrant for his DNA, which yielded a match.

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Rolon also announced that the department will begin to hold on to sexual battery evidence for 50 years.

This is a developing story. Check back and watch Eyewitness News for live updates.

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