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Man Charged Decades Later With Raping Girl, 13, in Cambridge Bedroom

"We are able to begin today the process of holding someone accountable to what was really every parent's worst nightmare," DA Marian Ryan said

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A man has been arrested on suspicion of raping a child more than 20 years after the alleged attack in the girl's bedroom in Cambridge, prosecutors said Thursday.

Roger Reddick Jr., now 41, is accused of sneaking into a family's home on Oct. 18, 2000, and sexually assaulting her, knowing she was 13 years old. Reddick fled the home when the girl escaped the room and wasn't arrested until recent improvements in DNA analysis were able to link him to evidence at the scene, according to Cambridge police and the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.

"We are able to begin today the process of holding someone accountable to what was really every parent's worst nightmare: Your child's asleep in their bed in their own home. You're sleeping in the house. A violent stranger comes in and assaults your child in their bed," District Attorney Marian Ryan said at a news conference Thursday.

Reddick was due in court Thursday to face three charges of forcible rape on a child, prosecutors said. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak to the charges.

Reddick was first identified as a suspect in the attack in 2009, officials said, when a fingerprint pulled from a jewelry box at the scene was found to be his, but it wasn't enough to bring charges.

Green boxer shorts found at the foot of the girl's bed were also found at the scene, but a DNA profile wasn't initially able to be provided to the national database, officials said. The DA's cold case unit re-examined the case starting this September and were able to match the DNA to Reddick.

At the time, Reddick lived less than half a mile from the home where the attack took place, according to officials.

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