DNA Solves Cold Case

LUFKIN — An arrest has been made in the 6-year-old rape case of a mentally handicapped woman. Perry Haggerton, 53, Diboll, turned himself in Wednesday. He was pinpointed as a suspect after his DNA was collected and placed in the Combined DNA Index System system due to a second DWI conviction in December 2010. Haggerton was placed on six years probation following the DWI conviction. On May 3, Lufkin Police were notified that Haggerton’s DNA potentially matched DNA from a rape that occurred in July 2005. The next day, Haggerton submitted to a mouth swab at the Lufkin Police department after a search warrant was issued. That swab was submitted to a Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in Houston, resulting in a definite match Aug. 29.

The charges stem from July 19, 2005, when a then 44-year-old woman filed a police report. A sexual assault examination at Memorial Medical Center-Lufkin showed the woman did have trauma to her private area and DNA from her attacker was collected. She gave a similar account of being raped to a sexual assault nurse examiner.