District Attorney and Cambridge Police Announce Arrest in Long-Unsolved Burglary/Sex Assault; Teenage Girl Was Sexually Assaulted in 2000

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow announced today that over twenty-two years after a 13-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by an unidentified man who entered her bedroom in the middle of the night, an investigative breakthrough has resulted in the identification and arrest of Roger W. Reddick, Jr., 41, of Cambridge.  He will be arraigned today on three counts of Rape of a Child with Force in the Cambridge District Court.

“This case is every parent’s nightmare – a violent stranger entering your home in the middle of the night and assaulting your child in their bed. When I started the Cold Case Unit, I made a commitment that we would take every opportunity to use advances in technology to proceed with previously uncharged cases. This case is a perfect example of that work and I am grateful that we are able to begin the process of holding the defendant accountable for the events of that evening,” said District Attorney Ryan.

In the early morning hours of October 18, 2000, a male intruder entered the victim’s home in Cambridge, where she lived with her mother and father. When he reached her second floor bedroom, he rushed to the victim’s bed, covered her mouth with his hand, and ordered her to be quiet. The intruder then sexually assaulted her. During the attack, he specifically asked the victim how old she was, and she told him truthfully that she was only thirteen. When she had an opportunity to escape, the victim ran out of her bedroom and screamed for help. The intruder followed her out of the bedroom, then ran past her down a flight of stairs and out of the house.    

Cambridge Police responded to the scene and searched the neighborhood for the attacker without success.  A crime scene response team searched the home, gathering evidence and looking for objects that were out of place. They observed a jewelry box that had been moved, and recovered a latent fingerprint from the exterior of the box. In 2009, police were able to identify that print as having been left by the left middle finger of Roger Reddick, Jr. but did not at that point have sufficient corroboration to charge him.

Also recovered from the scene were a pair of green patterned men’s boxer shorts that had been left behind at the foot of the victim’s bed.  Police confirmed that they did not belong to the victim or to any member of her family, and that they had not been there when the victim went to sleep.  Chemists from the State Police Crime Laboratory attempted to develop a DNA profile from the boxer shorts, but were unable to develop a profile that was eligible to upload to the national DNA database.    

In September of 2022, the Cold Case Unit began a renewed examination of this case working with the crime laboratory, which was able to utilize the advances in technology that had occurred since the original testing.  They were able to identify Roger Reddick, Jr. as the source of the major DNA profile on the green boxers.

“This case represents how committed the Cambridge Police Department is to bringing justice to survivors and their families, and how diligent we will work with our partners to ensure violent criminals are identified and apprehended, no matter how long it takes,” said Cambridge Police Commissioner Christine Elow.  “We will always be here for survivors and will never give up trying to find and prosecute the people behind such horrendous acts.”

At the time of the offense, Reddick was a resident of the City of Cambridge who lived less than half a mile from the scene of the crime. 

The prosecutor assigned to this case is David Solet, Chief of the Cold Case Unit. This case was investigated by the detectives and crime scene personnel from the Cambridge Police Department; and the forensic scientists from the State Police Crime Laboratory.

All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.