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2nd DNA Test Yields Arrest In Cold Case

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 10, 2007

LARGO - Pinellas County Sheriff's Office detectives have made an arrest in a 13-year-old rape investigation after resubmitting DNA evidence to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement laboratory.

David Ginther

Investigators on Tuesday arrested David Allen Ginther, 37, at his mobile home at 6030 150th Ave. N. in Clearwater, sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner said.

Ginther is accused of slipping into a home in Lealman on June 15, 1994, where a 26-year-old woman and her four children were sleeping. He held a metal object to the woman's throat and told her he would kill her if she didn't cooperate, Bordner said.

He then blindfolded her, took her out of her room, where two of the children were sleeping, and put her in a vacant room where he assaulted her for more than an hour, Bordner said.

Detectives initially submitted DNA evidence of the scene but got no results, Bordner said. They resubmitted the evidence in May as part of a cold case investigation, and, because DNA technology has improved since 1994, there was a match, he said.

Ginther's DNA was on record because of an arrest in Florida.

With the DNA matched to Ginther's, investigators compared a palm print left at the scene, and that, too, was a match, Bordner said.

He was charged with one count of armed sexual battery.

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