DNA Evidence Leads To 2008 Ormond Beach Sexual Assault Suspect's Arrest

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Ormond Beach, FL - Volusia County Sheriff's detectives, with help from the Indian River County Sheriff's Office, have arrested a sex offender in Vero Beach and charged him with a sexual assault that happened on September 14, 2008, in Ormond Beach. It was more than nine years ago when a 47-year-old tourist was sexually assaulted by a man, then 33, who said, according to VCSO, that he was "into older women" and wanted to have his way with her. The woman begged him to stop but he refused and sexually battered her in the sand dunes along State Road A1A in Ormond Beach. After the attack, the victim submitted to a forensic exam and the physical evidence was stored in the Sheriff's Office evidence unit, but detectives exhausted all their leads and the case ended up turning cold. Years later, the state Attorney General's Office pushed for state funding to help deal with the backlog of sexual assault evidence kits being tested in Florida. In October of 2015 VCSO detectives sent the evidence from the 2008 case to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for testing. A DNA match was made two years later and in October of 2017 VCSO investigators were notified. Detectives reopened the case, tracked down the suspect, and put together an arrest affidavit that led to Tuesday's arrest of 41-year-old Adam Gregory Shuman, a registered sex offender from 1998 and a resident of Vero Beach. He's been charged with sexual battery and is being held at the Indian River County jail on $50,000 bond.

(Shuman's mugshot courtesy the IRCSO)

“This wouldn’t have been possible without the state funding from the Attorney General’s Office to help ease the backlog of sexual assault cases,” said Sheriff Mike Chitwood. The victim was notified on October 31, 2017, about the new evidence. She was emotional but told investigators she's committed to helping them prosecute the suspect. Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2018.
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