APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Appleton police have made an arrest in a five-year-old sexual assault case thanks to DNA.
Back on November 11, 2010, police say a 26-year-old woman was attacked while walking over the College Avenue Bridge around 11:15 p.m. She reported being grabbed from behind and repeatedly groped by a man she didn’t know.
The victim, police say, fought against the male, attempting to scratch and gouge at his eyes.
“As we would tell any victim she fought hard to try to get away from him,” says Sgt. Dave Lund of the Appleton Police Department. “And while doing this inadvertently ending up with her fingers in his mouth.”
A search of the area by Appleton police officers were unsuccessful, but they managed to collect DNA samples during their investigation.
“After a period of time our case went cold, we were unable to locate a suspect and we didn’t have additional information,” Lund says.
Fast forward to May 2016 when the Appleton Police Department got a databank hit confirmation from the Wisconsin Crime Lab. That DNA from the victim’s finger matched a man who had lived near the College Avenue Bridge in the Offender Index.
48-year-old Eric L. Philipsen of Appleton had been convicted of a prostitution charge in Winnebago County in January 2016. Philipsen, based on that conviction, was ordered to submit a DNA sample.
Investigators tracked down Philipsen on Wednesday and arrested him on a charge of second-degree sexual assault with force. He’s currently in the Outagamie County Jail.
CSI-STYLE TAKEDOWN
While an episode of the hit TV show “CSI” can use DNA and other scientific methods to locate the suspect in a crime within an hour, real life drama like this takes much longer.
Lund explains that while the case can go cold, DNA submitted to the Wisconsin Crime Lab remains in their database waiting to be matched up with a name.
“There are a number of crimes where upon conviction, individuals have to submit DNA samples,” Lund says. “I believe Philipsen’s DNA sample was given in February, was then entered by the Wisconsin Crime Lab and through their technology they try to match that DNA to any open cases that they have where evidence was submitted and a DNA sample was obtained.”
That sample from Philipsen was then crossed with those open cases, and it found a link with the unsolved 2010 sexual assault case. Lund explains that they often get contacted about cases by the Crime Lab.
“Often times it may be that something was inconclusive or that there’s no current matches,” says Lund. “But we’ve also been fortunate that we’ve had a few of these happen.”
In mid-May, the Appleton Police Department was told by the State Crime Lab that they had a match from their Offender Index on DNA submitted from that 2010 case.
“That allows us to reopen a case that had really gone stagnant about a year or two after it happened,” Lund says. “This information allowed our investigators to go back and look at this individual to see if he had connections to anyone involved, or see if he was in the city.”
Investigators say they learned that Philipsen lived very close to the scene, which put him in the area. They continued to work that angle until authorities were confident Wednesday to make an arrest.
Police generally joke with the media about perceptions of television crime shows and how quickly a crime can be solved, which brings us back to the “CSI” reference.
“It doesn’t happen that quickly,” Lund says. “In this case we’re talking well over 5 years that it took for us to be able to link up the evidence we collected at the crime scene and from the victim on that night in November 2010 to the suspect and be able to make an arrest.”