2:28 p.m., Sept. 9, 2010----Newark Police have obtained a warrant charging John Paul Thomas, 26, with rape and burglary for criminal incidents that occurred in Newark in October 2006. One of the victims was a UD student.

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Newark Police have placed a detainer on Thomas, ensuring he is held until proceedings can be undertaken to facilitate his return to Delaware.

Two incidents occurred in October 2006. On Oct. 8, 2006, a 19-year-old woman was asleep in her bedroom in a house on Wilbur Street around 5:30 a.m., when she was awakened and forcibly raped by a man. On Oct. 28, 2006, a 20-year-old UD student was asleep on her couch in her residence on Haines Street, when she was awakened, taken to a nearby bedroom and forcibly raped.

Evidence collected in both investigations includes DNA, and in January 2007 the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that the same suspect was the source of the DNA in both rapes.

In July 2009, Newark Police were notified by Lafayette, La., Police that DNA from an attempted burglary there on Jan. 26, 2007, matched the DNA from the two Newark rapes in October 2006. In February 2010, Newark Police learned that DNA from an investigation of a rape in Lafayette on Dec. 23, 2009, also matched.

Thomas was arrested in March 2010 for a domestic-related crime in Lafayette. Part of the arrest processing for the domestic-related crime is mandatory submission of a DNA sample.

On Sept. 1, Newark Police were notified by Lafayette Police that Thomas' DNA matched the DNA from the four earlier cases, and the next day Newark detectives flew to Louisiana and made plans to arrest Thomas. Officers from the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Marshall's Office picked up Thomas on Sept. 3 aboard an oil rig off the Louisiana Coast, and he was taken to the Lafayette Police Department, where he was charged in the Louisiana cases.

According to Newark Police, Thomas was a Delaware resident in 2006, living on Tracy Street in the Kiamensi/Stanton area. It has not yet been determined if he had any connection to the victims.

Police do not know when Thomas will be returned to Delaware to face two counts of first degree rape and two counts of second degree burglary.

The Newark Police Department has acknowledged the Lafayette, La., Police Department, the sexual assault nurse examiners of the Christiana Medical Center, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the state of Delaware, and the Acadiana Crime Lab of Louisiana for their assistance leading the charges brought against Thomas.

Newark Police Chief Paul Tiernan said, “The successful conclusion of these cases is a testament to the labor of the investigating detectives, who did not allow the passage of time to discourage their efforts to identify the person responsible for these violent crimes. I commend the investigators for their commitment to the innocent victims of John Thomas.”

The Newark Police press release is available online.