MUNCIE, Ind. — Muncie police say DNA testing linked a twice-convicted Muncie sex offender to a 2023 sexual assault.
Michael Edward Harrold, 55, was arrested last week on a preliminary count of rape, a Level 3 felony carrying up to 16 years in prison.
According to an affidavit, a woman reported in February 2023 that when she left a south-side plasma donation center, a man in a pickup truck offered her a ride home.
The woman said the man — with whom she was not acquainted — instead drove her to his home, where he sexually assaulted her. He then drove her to the group home where she lives, the court document said.
Evidence recovered from the woman’s body was submitted to a state laboratory, resulting in DNA results that were then entered into a DNA database, investigators said.
“The statistical analysis provides a very strong support for the preposition” that the DNA recovered was that of Harrold, the court document said.
“The DNA profile is at least a trillion times more likely it originated from (the woman) and Michael Harrold than it originated from (the woman) and an unknown, unrelated individual,” the affidavit reported.
According to court records, Harrold in 2000 was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor. In that case, he had been accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.
In 1990, he was convicted of sexual battery after being accused of fondling and choking a 16-year-old girl.
In recent weeks, after receiving the results of the DNA testing, detectives again interviewed the woman who reported the February 2023 sexual assault.
She said Harrold took her to his home against her will and “forced me to have sex with him.”
“I told him I didn’t want to do it and he just forced me,” she said. “I told him to stop and he wouldn’t listen.”
Harrold, arrested on Thursday, was released after posting a $20,000 bond at the Delaware County Jail.
The Delaware County prosecutor’s office will determine whether formal charges will be filed in the case.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Muncie sex offender held after DNA tests allegedly link him to rape
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