About three weeks after a woman was sexually assaulted walking home near the Duckpond neighborhood, Gainesville Police arrested a suspect Wednesday.
At about 2 a.m. on Oct. 9, Greg Delano McFarlane, 26, approached the woman near East University Avenue and Northeast First Street and asked to borrow her lighter, according to a statement issued by GPD. After returning the lighter, McFarlane followed the woman to the 600 block of NE Second St., where he pointed a gun to her head and sexually assaulted her.
DNA evidence during the investigation linked McFarlane, who ran away before police could arrive, to the rape, according to the news release. Investigators then obtained an arrest warrant, which was served Wednesday in an apartment complex in southeast Gainesville.
GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said the department has noticed an increase this year in sexual-assault-related crimes like molestation and assault, according to Alligator archives.
Last year, there were nearly 80 cases of this type of crime.
So far this year, there have been more than 100.
The investigation was a joint effort between GPD, the U.S. Marshal’s Service Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, GPD detective Matt Goeckel wrote in an email.
Police arrested McFarlane on a charge of sexual battery and took him to the Alachua County Jail where he remains, as of press time, in lieu of a $1 million bond.
