Man Arrested In Cinnaminson Charged In 1997 Sexual Assault: Cops

CINNAMINSON, NJ — A man who was arrested in Cinnaminson has been connected to a sexual assault that took place in Mount Laurel in 1997, according to police.

Rodolfo Vasquez, 61 of Merchantville, was arrested in Cinnaminson in February 2019, and charged with operating a motor vehicle on a suspended license, according to the Mount Laurel Police Department.

In September 2019, Vasquez pleaded guilty to an amended charge of contempt of a judicial order, which required him to submit a DNA sample into a national DNA database called CODIS, police said.

That DNA sample matched a DNA sample that had been collected by Mount Laurel police 16 years earlier in connection with a sexual assault case, police said.

On June 14, 1997, a woman reported to Mount Laurel police that she had been sexually assaulted. She told police she got out of bed to check on a noise when she was confronted by a man in her bedroom doorway.

The man hit her in the head, sexually assaulted her and told her not to call police before fleeing, police said. Officers discovered the rear sliding glass door had been forced open, police said.

They collected evidence, and the agreed to have a sexual assault examination performed at a hospital, police said. Additional evidence was collected from the victim and submitted to the New Jersey State Police crime laboratory in the hopes of collecting DNA from the suspect.

The lab obtained the DNA sample in 2003, and submitted it to CODIS. No match was initially made, until Vasquez’s DNA was submitted in 2019, police said. The match was made in August 2020.

The woman told police she didn’t know Vasquez, and wasn’t sure if he would have lived near her at the time of the assault. She had also suffered permanent partial vision loss as a result of the attack, police said.

Police then obtained a DNA search warrant through Burlington County Superior Court to confirm the CODIS hit for Vasquez, police said.

On September 24, 2020, police found Vasquez at an apartment in Merchantville, and asked him to come in for questioning. At that time, police collected a DNA sample from Vasquez that was sent to the New Jersey State Police crime lab.

On Jan. 1, 2021, Mount Laurel police said they received confirmation that the DNA collected at the crime scene belonged to Vasquez. After contacting the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, Mount Laurel police put a complaint together. On Sept. 26, Pennsauken police arrested Vasquez.

He was turned over to Mount Laurel police, who charged him with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated assault and second-degree burglary. He was committed to Burlington County Jail.

“The arrest of this offender was a collaborative effort between multiple law enforcement agencies,” Mount Laurel police said in a prepared statement. “The Mount Laurel Police would like to acknowledge the diligent efforts of the Cinnaminson Township Police Department.”