(BLOOMINGTON) – A Bloomington man was arrested Thursday after his DNA linked him to the September 2018 rape victim.
Bloomington Police arrested 33-year-old Paul Bridgewater after his DNA linked him to the rape of a 17-year-old girl.
Bridgewater is accused of choking and raping the girl after meeting her on the B-Line trail during the early morning hours of September 28, 2018.
The girl told police she met Bridgewater near Wheeler Mission on West Third Street on the trail. The two laid down on a blanket on a grassy hillside near the Mission and that Bridgewater choked and then raped her.
The girl returned to the scene of the crime where police recovered tissues Bridgewell used to wipe himself off with after the attack. Police sent the tissues to the Indiana State Police lab for testing.
The Bloomington Police Department received confirmation on April 23 that the semen found on the tissues matched Bridgewater.
Bridgewater was arrested on Thursday afternoon on charges of rape and criminal confinement.
