Suspect In 31-Year-Old Rape Case Extradited To Montgomery County

CHEVY CHASE, MD — Montgomery County police arrested a California man in connection with a rape that occurred 31 years ago in the Chevy Chase area.

Xavier Battice, 62, of Morgan Hill, California, was arrested by a local police department. Last Friday, he was extradited from California to Montgomery County, where he is being held without bond, police said Tuesday.

According to detectives with the Montgomery County Police Department’s Cold Case Unit, the female victim got off a bus in the 5400 block of Wisconsin Avenue in the Friendship Heights neighborhood on Sept. 24, 1992.

The suspect, later identified as Battice, followed the victim, took her to a nearby park and raped her before leaving the scene, police said.

The department’s Cold Case detectives submitted evidence from the crime scene to its crime laboratory, and a DNA profile was extracted from the evidence. The DNA was submitted into a Combined DNA Index System and matched it to Battice, according to police.

Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Battice, charging him with two counts of second-degree rape and one count of second-degree sex assault, police said.

They learned that Battice was living in California and notified the Morgan Hill Police Department of the investigation. He was held in jail in California before his extradition to Montgomery County.

Police said they are concerned there may be additional victims of sexual assault by Battice who have not contacted police. Other victims can visit the Crime Solvers of Montgomery County website at www.crimesolversmcmd.org and click on the “www.p3tips.com” link at the top of the page, or call 1-866-411-8477.