The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E5: Rose Solves, At Least, 86 Cold Cases

Summary

The Girlfriends: Spotlight, E5: Rose Solves, At Least, 86 Cold Cases
Release Date: April 28, 2025
Host: Anna Sinfield
Produced by iHeartPodcasts and Novel

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of The Girlfriends: Jailhouse Lawyer, host Anna Sinfield delves deep into the inspiring true story of Rose Brady, a dedicated police sergeant whose relentless pursuit of justice led her to solve 86 cold cases of sexual violence in Baltimore County. This episode not only highlights Rose's professional challenges and triumphs but also underscores the profound personal connections that fueled her determination.

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The Birth of a Mission

The story begins in 2004, a pivotal year for Rose Brady. After years of leading the homicide team in Baltimore County Police Department (PD), Rose transitions to the Special Victims Unit (SVU), a department grappling with thousands of unsolved sexual assault cases dating back decades. Unlike her previous role, Rose finds the SVU underfunded and overlooked, often referred to disparagingly as the "redheaded stepchild" of the PD.

Rose Brady [08:24]: "Sex crimes is what it was called at the time, till we changed the name. And my guys didn't even have the latest equipment, so I always called us, like, the redheaded stepchild or something."

This stark contrast ignites Rose's frustration, particularly when she recounts a case where a brutal rape went unpunished due to societal prejudices against the victim's profession.

Rose Brady [08:49]: "You got me riled up there. It's infuriating. It makes you feel like there isn't really, you know, the system we have in place isn't necessarily built to serve."

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A Discovery That Changed Everything

Shortly after taking charge of the SVU, Rose learns from her friend Mary, a forensic worker, about Dr. Rudi Breitenecker—a visionary forensic pathologist who, starting in 1977, meticulously preserved every piece of biological evidence from rape examinations at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Unlike other departments that discarded evidence due to space constraints and the nascent state of DNA technology, Dr. Breitenecker believed in the future potential of this data.

Rose Brady [05:53]: "I knew, and I think I told her this, that there's a gold mine there."

Recognizing the untapped potential, Rose envisions utilizing these preserved samples to solve cold cases by matching DNA against the national CODIS database. She instructs her team to sift through cases dating back to 1977, focusing on stranger rapes—crimes where the perpetrator was unknown and often never seen by the victim.

Rose Brady [12:00]: "The reason why I wanted to pursue them is because if they raped this girl and there's a stranger rape, then they're still out there. So we still wanted to pursue it because we still had to find whoever that did it and get them in jail."

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The First Breakthrough

In 2004, Rose's team secures a hit from the CODIS database linked to Thaddeus Clemens, a known rapist serving time for a crime from the 1980s. This success serves as a catalyst, reinforcing the efficacy of their approach and motivating the team to dive deeper into the pool of cold cases.

Rose Brady [22:14]: "He was arrested for it. He was convicted of it, and that's what put his DNA into the CODIS database. That's how we got him."

Encouraged by Clement's conviction, Rose and her team begin methodically processing thousands of cases, extracting DNA, and matching profiles. Their persistence soon pays off as multiple hits begin to surface, revealing a serial rapist who had evaded capture for nearly three decades.

Rose Brady [27:01]: "When we started submitting the slides, I started getting hits. Like the first one I had, I had two hits from, like, two different cases, two different victims, and the suspect unknown."

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A Personal Connection

The investigation takes a deeply personal turn when DNA evidence connects the notorious rapist to a 1978 case involving Rose's close friend, Laura Newman. This revelation not only intensifies Rose's resolve but also adds emotional weight to her mission.

Rose Brady [28:17]: "When I first came on, a friend of mine was sexually assaulted, and it was never cleared."

Determined to bring closure to Laura and countless other survivors, Rose accelerates her efforts. Her team's breakthrough comes unexpectedly through a forgotten TV interview featuring Alfonso Hill, a convicted rapist whose DNA had yet to be entered into CODIS due to systemic delays.

Rose Brady [39:24]: "I said, so I'm just telling you, Sarge, it looks just like him."

Utilizing her resources and connections, Rose orchestrates the extraction and testing of Hill's DNA against existing evidence, leading to his confession and the unraveling of his extensive crime spree.

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The Triumph and Its Impact

In 2008, Alfonso Hill is finally held accountable for his decades of heinous crimes. The courtroom scene is poignant, with survivors confronting their perpetrator after years of fear and uncertainty.

Rose Brady [41:01]: "Every single one of them, except for one, wanted to be there. It was just something you just don't see."

Judge's acknowledgment of Dr. Breitenecker's foresight underscores the collaborative effort behind these victories.

Judge [41:56]: "That's a shame Dr. Breitenecker's not here, because what he's done and what he thought before anyone else did is why we're here."

Rose's relentless pursuit not only brings justice to the victims but also transforms the SVU, leading to the establishment of a dedicated cold case unit post her retirement.

Rose Brady [43:56]: "They got one after I retired. They finally put one together. Yeah."

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Conclusion and Reflections

As the episode concludes, Rose reflects on the role of fate and determination in her journey, emphasizing the significance of support systems and the continuous fight against sexual violence.

Rose Brady [44:18]: "And there's plenty of victim agencies that will help you get through the emotional part of it, because don't live with it without telling people. There's so much help out there, but you have to ask for it."

Anna Sinfield offers a sobering statistic to highlight the broader context of sexual violence in the United States:

Anna Sinfield [46:38]: "One out of six women in the United States have experienced sexual violence. And research from the Rape, Abuse and Incest Network suggests that for every 1,000 rapes that happen in the United States, only 384 are reported to the police and only seven end in a felony conviction."

Despite the daunting numbers, Rose's story serves as a beacon of hope, illustrating that with dedication, resources, and unwavering commitment, justice can prevail even in the most overlooked corners of the legal system.

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Key Takeaways

• Persistence Pays Off: Rose Brady's unwavering determination showcases the impact one dedicated individual can have in transforming institutional shortcomings into triumphs.

• Importance of Preserved Evidence: Dr. Breitenecker's foresight in preserving forensic evidence decades ago became the cornerstone for solving numerous cold cases.

• Personal Motivation: Personal connections, such as Rose's friendship with Laura Newman, can drive professionals to exceed expectations and achieve monumental successes.

• Systemic Changes: The establishment of a cold case unit post-Rose's tenure signifies the lasting legacy of her efforts and the systemic changes they inspired.

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Support and Resources

For those affected by the themes discussed in this episode, NO MORE is a partnered domestic violence charity offering support and resources. Visit no-more.org for assistance.

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Production Credits:
Written and Produced by Jake Otyvich
Assistant Producer: Lucy Carr
Researcher: Zayana Yusuf
Editor: Hannah Marshall
Executive Producers: Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan
Sound Design and Mixing: Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson
Music Supervision: Jay Kotajevic, Nicholas Alexander, and Anna Sinfield
Original Music Composed by Louisa Gerstein and Gemma Freeman
Series Artwork by Christina Lehmkul

Special Thanks:
Katrina Norvell, Carrie Lieberman, and Will Pearson at iHeart Podcasts, Carly Frankel, and the entire team at WME.

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This episode was produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts.

Transcript

[Anna Sinfield]

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[Anna Sinfield]

Hey, listener. I just wanted to give you a heads up that in this episode we tell quite a lot of stories about rape and sexual assault. If you're affected by anything that you hear, there are some resources you can access for support in the show notes. But also no pressure to listen. If you do want to, though, there's lots of really inspiring stuff in there. You're going to hear one detective's dogged quest to bring perpetrators to justice. It's a great listen. All right, take care. The story starts on a Friday night back in 2004. And it starts as it will go on with a mind blowing coincidence.

[Rose Brady]

Oh, it was like a scene in the movie how it happened. I was going to a basket bingo and I invited a couple of my best friends.

[Anna Sinfield]

Rose Brady is a police sergeant, and after years of working in homicide, she's just been put in charge of Baltimore County's svu, the team investigating cases of sexual violence. It's a frustrating job. The crimes she's investigating are just the tip of the iceberg. Her department is sitting on thousands of unsolved cases dating back decades. So that Friday night, Rose wants to blow off some steam in the most wholesome way imaginable by playing basket bingo, which as far as I understand it, is the same as regular bingo, only you play it for longer.

[Rose Brady]

Burger baskets.

[Anna Sinfield]

I've looked into it and it's a brand of these old timey looking woven baskets.

[Rose Brady]

Longenberger baskets are a big thing, or they were back in 2004. I mean, women will die for these baskets. Well, if you win the bingo, your prize is a longumberger basket and they fill it with all kinds of goodies.

[Anna Sinfield]

Rose is heading to this basket extravaganza with one of her best friends, Mary, who happens to work at a local hospital.

[Rose Brady]

She worked in forensics and she worked for a Dr. Breitenecker who I didn't know who that was. And we're driving her van and I'm sitting in the front on the passenger side and she said to me, well, when are you going to come and get Dr. B's slides? And I'm like, what are you talking about? I don't even. What are you talking about?

[Anna Sinfield]

This is when Rose discovers that Mary's boss, The forensic pathologist, Dr. Rudi Breitnecker, had in storage all the biological evidence from every rape exam he'd ever performed at the hospital. Alarm bells went off for Rose. It's like she'd hit on a solution to a problem she hadn't even realized could be solved.

[Rose Brady]

When she said that, I said, going back to what date? Because in 1977, a friend of mine had been sexually assaulted by a stranger, and it'd never been cleared. So I asked her, how far back did these slides go? And she said, to 1977. I was like, you have got to be kidding me.

[Anna Sinfield]

Those slides could contain the DNA of the man who attacked Rose's friend, which now, in 2004, could be used to solve her friend's case. But not only that.

[Rose Brady]

And I said, well, how many do you have? And she said, we have, like, probably hundreds and hundreds.

[Anna Sinfield]

Rose has stumbled upon the key to more than 1,000 cold cases of rape.

[Rose Brady]

I knew, and I think I told her this, that there's a gold mine there.

[Anna Sinfield]

On this week's episode of the Girlfriend Spotlight, the story of what happened once Rose and her team set their sights on Dr. Breitnecker's database.

[Rose Brady]

Our game plan was that we were going to get hits and we were going to lock people up.

[Anna Sinfield]

They came up with a way to go back in time and close cases that had lain dormant for decades.

[Rose Brady]

I've never had this feeling before in my life. The hair on the back of my neck was starting to stand up. I mean, it was unbelievable.

[Anna Sinfield]

In the end, Rose's mission was simple. To give justice to women across Baltimore who thought that they would never see the day. I'm Anna Sinfield, and from the teams at Novel and I Heart Podcast, this is the Girlfriend Spotlight, where we tell stories of women winning. Today, Rose solves at least 86 cold cases these days. Rose Brady is retired. Her life is a million miles away from the one she led as a police officer. She actually lives on a mule farm now out in the Maryland countryside, and she rides motorbikes. She doesn't even own a trivial thing like a computer anymore. She says she's given up on all that stuff. But back in 2004, she was on the rise in Baltimore County PD before taking over the Special Victims Unit, she led the homicide team for nine years. And homicide detectives, they're kind of like the jocks of the police department.

[Rose Brady]

In homicide, you get whatever you need because you've got a murderer out there. That was a no brainer. I got whatever I needed. My detectives got whatever they needed, whether it was equipment, if I needed bodies to work on the cases that they needed help with, anything, we got it.

[Anna Sinfield]

When Rose took charge of the svu, she instantly felt a stark contrast.

[Rose Brady]

I go over to Sex crimes is what it was called at the time, till we changed the name. And my guys didn't even have the latest equipment, so I always called us, like, the redheaded stepchild or something.

[Anna Sinfield]

Rose says she also experienced judges being lenient with sentencing for perpetrators of sex crimes. And then there were the general attitudes around sexual violence, which would even seep into the verdicts juries would deliver.

[Rose Brady]

One of our cases was a prostitute. She was working, as, you know, in a hotel room, but the guy came in with a gun, and not only did he rob her, but he raped her. And you know what? I don't care if you're a prostitute or not. You can still be raped. And we've always had that attitude. But anyway, this woman was brutally raped by gunpoint. And it was a jury trial. So this jury were having problems that a prostitute can't be raped. He should have gotten, like, I don't know, 50, 60 years. And then we had a charge that was, I think he stole cell phones and stuff like that. The jury comes back and finds him not guilty of the first degree rape of the assault. The only thing they would find him guilty of was the third theft of her cell phone. And the judge did the only thing he could do. He gave him the maximum sentence for the theft. So you even had, you know, people on a jury thinking a prostitute can't be raped. Are you kidding me?

[Anna Sinfield]

So frustrating.

[Rose Brady]

You got me riled up there.

[Anna Sinfield]

I can understand that you're riled up about that. It's. That's infuriating. And it makes you feel like there isn't really, you know, the system we have in place isn't necessarily built to serve.

[Rose Brady]

He just had to educate people.

[Anna Sinfield]

Another crucial difference between Rose's experience of the two departments was what would happen to evidence when cases went cold in murder investigations. Physical evidence would never be destroyed, even decades later. But things were very different in the Special Victims Unit.

[Rose Brady]

I didn't find out until I went into sex crimes. But departments all over the country for years had destroyed evidence because basically you only have enough room in evidence room. So then they would start getting rid of evidence because you had new evidence coming in and people didn't know about DNA. No one ever even knew that there would be such a thing as the evidence they took from that victim would actually point to a suspect. So a lot of the cases were destroyed.

[Anna Sinfield]

But Dr. Breitnecker, the forensic pathologist at Greater Baltimore Medical center, was kind of a visionary. Starting in 1977. He kept all the forensic evidence from every rape exam he ever did, and he did it all off his own back.

[Rose Brady]

As a scientist, he was way, way ahead of, you know, everyone else, and he always felt that the evidence that he took from the rape exams would someday lead to a suspect, and that once he retired his. You know, the friend of mine who ran the forensic unit in the hospital, she had literally was going to start destroying the slides because they didn't need them, they just kept them because Dr. Breitnecker asked them when he retired. He wanted her to keep it. She didn't. This was going to happen.

[Anna Sinfield]

So tell me about these slides, this kind of database. What does it actually mean? What do they look like?

[Rose Brady]

It's just like you see on the old TV shows. So they're a little glass slide, and they would do smears from the evidence from rape. And what you're looking for on these slides is sperm.

[Anna Sinfield]

So after Rose found out about the slides, just weeks into her new job leading the svu, she decided on a plan of action. She knew she couldn't solve all of the cold cases at once. There were actually over a thousand of them, and her relatively small team still had new crimes coming in all the time. So she told them to look for a very specific kind of unsolved rape case.

[Rose Brady]

I had my corporal go literally through our logbooks and starting at 1977 and pulling every open case that we had. And of course, the open cases were the ones that were stranger cases, which were the ones you wanted to find.

[Anna Sinfield]

What Rose calls a stranger case means the victim was sexually assaulted by someone they didn't know, often didn't even see, and so they couldn't identify their attacker.

[Rose Brady]

The reason why I wanted to pursue them is because if they raped this girl and there's a stranger rape, then they're still out there. So we still wanted to pursue it because we still had to find whoever that did it and get them in jail, because they were still probably raping, and they were.

[Anna Sinfield]

Rose's idea was to find old unsolved cases like this and see which of the victims were originally examined by Dr. Breitnecker. Then she'd request the DNA evidence from the hospital and run it through this still fledgling national database of criminals. But it was slow and expensive to get this process up and running. It could be months before her team would be able to crack one of the cold cases only once again, an incredible coincidence happened after the break. How a stroke of luck put Rose's team on the trail of a rapist who'd been evading detection since the 1980s.

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[Rose Brady]

I had only been in the union as a sergeant for I went in separate September of 2004. So it was Christmas time and I'm actually off. I'm the sergeant, so usually I can take off.

[Anna Sinfield]

Lucky you.

[Rose Brady]

My corporal was in charge. So I'm home. And we hadn't even started picking up the slides yet. I mean, this was only four months into it and we still had to figure out how to get them and do the subpoenas and stuff. So I wasn't even thinking about getting call like this. And my corporal called me and he said, sarge, we actually got a CODIS hit on one of our cases. And I'm thinking, well, wait a minute, we haven't even gotten picked up the slide yet. How is this possible?

[Anna Sinfield]

CODIS is that national DNA database. And this match was possible because someone in another department had the idea of running surviving DNA evidence from rape cases through codis. It was a separate effort to use DNA to close unsolved cases. And what Rose's corporal was about to tell her shocked Rose.

[Rose Brady]

He said, and your name's in the report. And I said, what? And he said, your name's in the report. Let me read this. It's like, apparently you were a decoy. And I said, you have got to be kidding me.

[Anna Sinfield]

The name that matched on the DNA database was Thaddeus Clemens. And it took Rose right back to the start of her career.

[Rose Brady]

How I remembered that name from the 80s, 86 or whatever it was to 2004. But it always stuck in my mind. When I got permitted to corporal, I went to Wilkins precinct, and there was another corporal there, and he had told me about this rapist that they had, like, I don't know how many cases now. It was like, five. He had a whole booklet on, like, five or six rapes.

[Anna Sinfield]

All these rapes were by the same perpetrator using the same MO he would.

[Rose Brady]

Grab the women, and they were early, from teens to, like, 21. They would always get off a bus in a certain area at nighttime, and when they got off the bus, he would grab them from behind with a gun, and he would put what we call welder's glasses on them. And the welder's glasses are glasses that go in front and on the sides. So literally, they couldn't. It's like a blindfold, honestly. So they never saw him. And he would take them to a vehicle, and they couldn't get out because he had it fixed so that they couldn't open the door and jump out. And then he would take these to me. Young women he would drive them to. All they could describe was, it seemed like it was a. A ball field from a school. Then he would sexually assault them.

[Anna Sinfield]

The police weren't able to catch the guy because none of the women ever saw him, and he always drove a different car. Back in the mid-80s, when this corporal told young Rose about the attacker, she could tell he was really concerned.

[Rose Brady]

Sid was really worried that he's going to kill somebody because he always had a gun, and if one of the victims started to fight him, then he was going to kill them. So between the two of us, we came up with. I said to him, well, you know what? I was around the same age. I was in my twenties at that time. And I said, well, let's do a decoy operation.

[Anna Sinfield]

Why would you want to do that?

[Rose Brady]

Okay, so then, I mean, I've seen that on tv. I said, I know they do this on tv. Then he said, okay.

[Anna Sinfield]

So one night, Rose found herself undercover, trying to lure the attacker in. Out on the street where he stalked his victims.

[Rose Brady]

I had officers in the trees. I mean, I had so much coverage. They were everywhere. And I was walking up and down the sidewalk right around the same time. And one of the. The bus routes that he had. And all of a sudden, I hear all these police sirens, and I thought, what the heck is going on? And one of the guys pulled up next to me and said, you're not gonna believe this. But he just grabbed A woman three streets down. I said, you have got to be kidding me. And she actually got away from him and gave a description of a vehicle. They pulled it over, and they pulled a guy out of the truck, and she couldn't ID him. Now, remember, this was in the 80s, so there was no such thing as DNA. So if you couldn't ID a victim of a sexual assault, couldn't pick him out. They were gonna walk. But anyway, they had to let him go, and his name was Thaddeus Clemens.

[Anna Sinfield]

Twenty years later, as she sat on the phone to her corporal in the svu, Rose remembered Clemens case. The corporal told her how they finally connected him to DNA that was still sitting in the evidence room. Thaddeus Clemens was arrested for the sexual assault of a little girl who was a relative of his.

[Rose Brady]

He was arrested for it. He was convicted of it, and that's what put his DNA into the CODIS database. That's how we got him.

[Anna Sinfield]

In 2005, Thaddeus Clemens was convicted of five rapes he committed between 1985 and 1988. It seems to me that the case, while not the result of Dr. Breitnecker's database, was a sort of call to arms to Rose and her team. It showed that they could use old DNA evidence to close rape cases that had been open for decades, and there were thousands of those. It was time to start solving them using Dr. Breitnecker's slides. So once the funding was in place, they began to extract the DNA and run it through the database. Soon, matches started coming through.

[Rose Brady]

Every time we got a CODIS hit. Well, I mean, we were. Boom. We were out there looking for the guy and locking him up, and that was a good thing. The way they had to handle the cases, though, was totally different from a current case. Totally different.

[Anna Sinfield]

Yeah, I'm sure. Because, yeah, you're not dealing with an immediate crime scene or immediate report or.

[Rose Brady]

No, you literally had to go back 20 and 30 years, and you need to locate the victim. Sometimes they had to really do some great digging, but my guys were great with the computers, and so they would locate the victim.

[Anna Sinfield]

And it must be really shocking for the victims to suddenly get a phone call about a case that they would have moved on from.

[Rose Brady]

Well, and I didn't want phone calls. I wanted my detectives to see them in person, because exactly that. And most of these people, their names have changed. The women, they've gotten married, and in many cases, their families didn't even know this had ever happened to them.

[Anna Sinfield]

Wow.

[Rose Brady]

You could be walking in and there could be kids there and teenagers, and they never even knew it happened because it's so horrific for them. And they just wanted to put it behind them. So they didn't even tell their immediate family. And I had told my detectives when they first went there. Just make sure you tell these women that we've never forgotten you, and the case has never been closed. It was an open case, so we never forgotten you.

[Anna Sinfield]

And were these victims grateful for you guys coming in and still investigating? Were they angry?

[Rose Brady]

They were, but they were in shock. Like, it just brought it back. You never forget it. And so we felt bad about. We felt like we were re. Victimizing them. But then again, the comments that we got from them once they were convicted, found guilty, it relieved them. And as one of the victims told me, our very first case in 2004 was that her entire last 20 years, she was looking over her shoulder because she never knew if the guy that walked by her was the one that raped her.

[Anna Sinfield]

Yeah, it is.

[Rose Brady]

The only way to give a victim of a sexual assault that's a stranger closure is if you find them and you arrest them. Because they never know. They'll never know who did this to them.

[Anna Sinfield]

Once a hit in the CODIS database came through on a case, Rose and her team devised a plan. They wanted to make sure none of the perpetrators could talk their way out of the charges.

[Rose Brady]

When we made an arrest, they wouldn't tell them what they were arrested for. They were just saying, we've got to take you back to headquarters. So think about 20 years later. These guys are, no way thinking they're getting locked up for a rape they did 20 and 30 years ago. They think they're getting locked up for something current. So when my detectives go in there, the first thing they ask them, and they'll show them a picture, do you know this person? And they'll look at it, and they'll say, no. So they'll be Adam. And saying, I've never seen her before. So. And they'll say a name. You know this name first before they show the picture. No, I've never heard that name. Never seen her in my life. Now, this is recorded because by the time we get to court, their defense attorney is trying to say that they were girlfriend, boyfriend, or they, you know, he was. She was a prostitute. Horrible stuff. And then in front of a jury, we'd play the taped video, and here he is, you know, looking at this, saying, I've never seen her in my life. So that was so important because it also helped the victim. If we had such a good case, which DNA to me, is awesome, if the victim didn't have to testify, that was a good thing.

[Anna Sinfield]

Yeah.

[Rose Brady]

And most of our cases, they end up pleading, and they end up pleading to, like, they would get 30, 40, 50 years.

[Anna Sinfield]

Rose's detectives would repeat this process over and over again across the years.

[Rose Brady]

Every time we got another hit, I couldn't wait to tell them. And they were just so excited. It's like, okay, put your case together. Let's go get him. And we didn't wait. I mean, as soon as we got the hit, you know, I'm thinking, I'm not waiting. I mean, these guys, they're still out there raping. We have to get them. I was not gonna have another rape on my watch. When we knew that this guy was a rapist, we got hits on him.

[Anna Sinfield]

So that's kick ass. And tell me how the first signs of the next huge serial rapist case started appearing.

[Rose Brady]

When we started submitting the slides, I started getting hits. Like the first one I had, I had two hits from, like, two different cases, two different victims, and the suspect unknown.

[Anna Sinfield]

The DNA didn't trace back to a specific name. Instead, it came back as a match to another one of the slides in Dr. B's database.

[Rose Brady]

So the same suspect raped these two women. And then we got another hit, and it was the same guy. And it was all. We called the lock Raven corridor. It was all in the same area. And when I was up to the fourth hit, I was beside myself.

[Anna Sinfield]

Rose could tell that these four DNA matches, which showed that four seemingly unconnected rapes were committed by the same man, could turn into a huge case.

[Rose Brady]

And so I went to my major. I pretty much wore out the carpet from my office to his, and I said, I need help. I need somebody. My detectives don't have time to do this. I need help to start going through all our cases. Because after I had four, it's like, well, if there's four, there's gotta be more.

[Anna Sinfield]

These four cases spanned from the 1970s all the way to the early 2000s. Tell me about your personal connection to this case.

[Rose Brady]

When I first came on, a friend of mine was sexually assaulted, and it was never cleared.

[Anna Sinfield]

This friend, an old colleague of Rose's, was the one she instantly thought of that night. She heard about Dr. B's database, and Rose thought of her friend again. When this unknown attacker's DNA got connected to several different cases, all in the same area, it was exactly the same place where Rose's friend had been raped back in the 1970s when Rose ran her friend's slide, it came back as a match to the unknown serial rapist DNA. Now the investigation was personal. Coming up, the matches keep mounting. But then a long forgotten TV interview gives Rose's team their big break.

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[Rose Brady]

Got you. I've got you.

[Anna Sinfield]

Got you.

[Rose Brady]

I've got you.

[Anna Sinfield]

One day in the late 70s, Rose's friend, a fellow police officer, had returned home to her apartment. There was a stranger, a man, hiding out in the bushes near the entrance. When Rose's friend opened her door, the man forced his way in and sexually assaulted her. Over the span of two months in 1978, two other women in the same apartment building were attacked and raped by a stranger. And now in 2007, Rose had discovered that her friend's case was connected via DNA, location and MO to what appeared to be the same serial rapist who had also attacked many other women in the same area over nearly 30 years. This was already a huge case, but now it was personal for Rose too. If she was going to find the rapist and get justice for her friend, she needed more people on her team. So Rose marched into her boss's office to make her demand.

[Rose Brady]

So he actually gave me a detective who was on light duty because she was pregnant Eve. And she loved it because I think she was stuck like answering phones or something. And I had gotten a civilian. I gave him the four cases we had and I said, okay, go back from this time all the way up till current, this area and this MO and pull every case that you can find that's similar to this. Well, turned out we ended up with I think 11 or 12 cases that we had. Slides.

[Anna Sinfield]

Oh wow.

[Rose Brady]

And then I get another hit and another hit and I was Beside myself, because we're spanning 1978 to 2000. So, you know, he's still out there somewhere. So I think she pulled 20 some cases. Her and the civilian pulled 20 some cases that could be this guy.

[Anna Sinfield]

Rose's team had uncovered a serial rapist who, from what they could estimate, was even more prolific than Thaddeus Clemens. Now, something you need to know about Eve, the pregnant detective on light duty who is helping out with the case, is that she also happened to be a trained forensic sketch artist.

[Rose Brady]

One day, she had gone through the files, and she came into my office. Cause I had her working next door. And she said, sarge, I've actually got a composite in one of these folders from a victim. I said, really?

[Anna Sinfield]

A composite meaning a sketch of the attacker from the recollection of one of the victims. This surprised Rose. She didn't think any of the victims had seen the guy.

[Rose Brady]

The ones I had been reading, they didn't wake up until he was already on top of them. And, you know, if it was inside, he covered them with a blanket. Outside, it was nighttime. She said, yeah, it was one of the really old cases.

[Anna Sinfield]

Evelyn told Rose that she wanted to try and age the original sketch to see what the guy might look like. Now, 20 years later, she was doing it at home.

[Rose Brady]

And she had a big table, you know, her dining room table. And she would have you do it in stages. You know, you do eyes, the whole nine yards. You do different parts of it. So she had had them spread all over her table.

[Anna Sinfield]

This is the point where I have to issue another cosmic coincidence alert.

[Rose Brady]

And this is like another story out of a movie. But I'm not kidding. Everything was meant to be is what I'm going to say.

[Anna Sinfield]

Yeah.

[Rose Brady]

Her husband, who I happen to know was a Baltimore city. So he's looking at these drawings that his wife's doing. And then he ends up having to go to something that we all have to go once a year. Police officers have to go to what's called in service training to do with policing, obviously, current law, case law. Then you might do physical stuff, how to defend yourself, stuff like that. And I find this out on Monday. They come walking into my office. He and his wife. He had a VHS tape, okay? So it was 2006. And he has it in his hand. And they're both looking at me, and they say, sarge, I had to go to this in service training. And an instructor did not show up. I'm not kidding you on this. An instructor did not show up. So they put this tape in on a 48 Hours interview.

[Anna Sinfield]

Wow. Like the substitute teachers in 48 Hours is a true crime news documentary program on CBS. The story that was played in Eve's husband's training was about a cold rape case from Baltimore in 1983.

[Rose Brady]

You know, I'm thinking, where are we going with this? So then they said, he's watching this video, and when it was over, he goes up to instructor and said, can I get a copy of that? My wife Sargent needs to see this.

[Anna Sinfield]

The victim in the case was Laura Newman. When she was 18, she was raped by a stranger. She got home late at night after working her shift as a waitress in a Mexican restaurant. At around 2am she was lying in bed when she heard the clatter of someone breaking in through a window. She disregarded it, thinking she was maybe dreaming, which is when she was startled by a pillow pressed onto her face. The case wasn't solved at the time. Laura never saw her attacker, and the fingerprints lifted off her windowsill didn't match anyone. But she never let her case go. She kept calling the police department, asking them to look at it again. So in the early 2000s, a couple of detectives reran the perpetrator's prints through the system.

[Rose Brady]

Well, the fingerprints hit on this guy, Alfonso Hill. They arrest him for second degree rape and he confesses.

[Anna Sinfield]

It was such a remarkable story that 48 Hours wanted to interview everyone involved, even Hill, who, despite his lawyer's probably very salient advice, agreed to go on tv.

[Rose Brady]

They're telling me Sarji looks just like Evelyn's composite, that she's aged. And I was like, there's no way. I said, so you're telling me he's incarcerated right now and he's been incarcerated for a couple years? Yes. I said, well, he should have hit.

[Anna Sinfield]

Because Hill was in prison, his DNA should have already been in the CODIS database. All of these rape cases should have gotten a match to Hill right away.

[Rose Brady]

I said, it can't be him. Well, I'm just telling you, Sarge, it looks just like him. So I said, all right, I'll look at it. I put this VHS tape in the office. One of my detectives found one or player. We put it in and we've got the composite next to us. And I'm telling you, I've never had this feeling before in my life. The hair on the back of my neck was starting to stand up because this was the guy. I mean, it was unbelievable. But I'm still thinking it's not possible. So I call Maryland State Police because they run the actual codeis database. And I was in first name basis with the woman Michelle, that was running it by then. And I'd say, michelle, are you sure you don't have this guy in a database? Sarge, I don't have them.

[Anna Sinfield]

Rose hung up. But she couldn't shake the similarity between Hill and their suspect, so she dialed Michelle's number again.

[Rose Brady]

So then this time I gave her a name. Like, an hour later, she calls me.

[Anna Sinfield]

She told Rose that Alfonso Hill's DNA hadn't been put into the national database yet because Maryland State Police were extremely backed up with all the DNA that was now being uploaded. She suggested that her team should go to the prison, get their own swab of Hill's DNA, and run it against the serial rapists themselves.

[Rose Brady]

Not a problem. Click. I go right into the office where my detectives were working that case. I say, get a search warrant. Let's go. We're going to go up to. I think he was in Hagerstown. It's like we're getting his swabs. Even when I was in homicide, I don't think I ever got results back this fast. I'm sitting in my office a week later, and all of a sudden I hear all these people walking and all this commotion, and all of a sudden, all these. My detectives and the biologists are all standing in my doorway, and I'm looking at him, and I said, please tell me that Alfonso Hill, that it's him. And they said, it's him. It's like, oh, my gosh.

[Anna Sinfield]

Hill was still serving time in prison for the rape of Laura Newman, but Rose's team had DNA evidence that he'd committed many more. When they confronted him with it, he seemed to realize that there was no point in denying it. Once he was charged with these rapes, he pleaded guilty to them. After decades of assaulting women In Baltimore in 2008, Alfonso Hill was finally held responsible for his crimes. He had been applying for parole, and now he would likely never be free again. All but one of the survivors came to his court hearings. It was an opportunity for them to finally stare him down.

[Rose Brady]

Every single one of them, except for one, wanted to be there. It was just something you just don't see. We take him to the courtroom, and they're all sitting together, and all of a sudden the door opens, and I'm looking at my survivors, and it's like. Like laser. I mean, as soon as that door opened, he started walking towards him. He's like, laser. Because remember, all but one of them have never saw his face. The state's attorney reads every single one of these horrific cases, and the judge, who'd been around a long time, he was speechless. And then all of a sudden, after they read the last one, and before the victims could even go up there and do their impact, he said, you know, That's a shame Dr. Breitnecker's not here, because what he's done and what he thought before anyone else did is why we're here.

[Anna Sinfield]

Well, it turns out that Rose was way ahead of the judge. She also wanted Dr. B. Who is now in his 70s, to be there for this moment. So she asked her colleague Linda to bring him to the courtroom.

[Rose Brady]

So Linda has to make. He's such a humble man and had to make him stand up. Let me tell you. Everybody in that courtroom clapped. I mean, he got to see what he did.

[Anna Sinfield]

That's so beautiful. How did he react to that moment?

[Rose Brady]

He just. He just looked at everybody and, you know, did the hand, like, okay, you know, thank. You're welcome. You know, he's just very. He's a big man, and he's Austrian, so he's got a very heavy Austrian accent, and he was embarrassed, I guess, that, you know, we made him stand up. But in everybody clapping, even the. Even the deputies, I mean, everybody.

[Anna Sinfield]

Well, he deserved it.

[Rose Brady]

So, I mean, he's passed away. I went to the funeral. He passed away a couple years ago. This would have never happened for all these women without him.

[Anna Sinfield]

What an amazing guy. It does seem like so much of your work here has just. You've had a lot of coincidences. How do you feel about that?

[Rose Brady]

Yeah. Do we call it fate? I don't. I don't know. Meant to be. I mean, God's will, it was time to get these cases cleared. I don't know, because it just seemed to fall. These cases like this. Crazy.

[Anna Sinfield]

Yeah. In these incredible ways. Obviously, your amazing work, too.

[Rose Brady]

Well, it's my detectives. They did the investigations.

[Anna Sinfield]

How many of these cold cases did you close in total in your whole time at the SVU?

[Rose Brady]

From what I remember, it was 86.

[Anna Sinfield]

86. You must be so proud of that number. That's incredible.

[Rose Brady]

So I think it was around 86. Yeah. Yeah.

[Anna Sinfield]

Amazing. But that work's still being done as we speak.

[Rose Brady]

Yeah, they have actually. The department actually has a cold case unit now.

[Anna Sinfield]

Incredible.

[Rose Brady]

They got one after I retired. They finally put one together. Yeah.

[Anna Sinfield]

That's great. So, look, I've got one final question. I guess it's a bit of a reflective one. I'm wondering kind of what your message would be to survivors of sexual violence who are listening to this podcast. Because I know already that there are many and a lot of those people will have cases that are cold and, and haven't been solved.

[Rose Brady]

Well, look at whatever department that handled your case whenever it was, call them, because most departments across the country have cold case sexual assault teams now. And if you're a survivor, there's some place you can go to for help. There's plenty of victim agencies that will help you get through the emotional part of it, because don't live with it without telling people. There's so much help out there, but you have to ask for it. Yeah, but it is out there. I guarantee you it's out there. And don't. Don't walk alone.

[Anna Sinfield]

No, don't walk. I mean, that feels very inclusive of the kind of girlfriend's mantra of we're all in it together. On this podcast, I know that sexual violence cases are a particularly tough listen for women. It's not exactly something that we need to be curious about because it's something we all have to be sadly attuned to. One out of six women in the United States have experienced sexual violence. And research from the Rape, Abuse and Incest Network suggests that for every 1,000 rapes that happen in the United States, only 384 are reported to the police and only seven end in a felony conviction. It's depressing data. And for a series that claims it tells the stories of women winning, this episode is full of far too many women losing out in the worst possible way. But what Dr. B and Rose have done is a real win to me. Their dogged determination has brought convictions into a woefully unprosecuted space and proven that solving cold cases doesn't just bring about historic justice, but it can protect people today. Next time on the Girlfriend Spotlight, Madison and Christine become digital detectives. So we just started adding new folders of this victim, this victim, this victim.

[Rose Brady]

And let's be honest, like, I was.

[Anna Sinfield]

Very motivated to help you, but it's nothing's more motivating than your own boobs being on the Internet. Hey, it's Anna. You've reached the girlfriend's hotline. Leave your story after the. Okay, gotta go. Love ya.

[Laura Newman]

When I was skiing in Colorado, I fell and broke my arm. And I was in a lot of pain, but I was mainly just very sad and very low because I had a lot of plans that were up in the air. And the healing time is really long. When I texted my closest group of girlfriends from home to tell them I'd broken my arm. I sent them a mirror selfie in the hospital room with my sling and most of their first responses were just commenting on how great my hair looked, which made me laugh.

[Anna Sinfield]

If you have your own story like the one you just heard and you'd like the whole girlfriends gang to hear it, then please send it to us. You can record it as a Voice memo under 90 seconds please, and email it straight to to thegirlfriendsnovel Audio. Please don't include your name. We're keeping things a little anon. We want stories like say, that one time you faked an emergency on an awful date and your bestie bailed you out with a phone call. We love her. Or that time when all of your girls showed up on your doorstep with five pizzas, two tubs of ice cream and three bottles of Sauvignon Blanc because the man of your dreams just dumped you. I want stories that are meaningful or silly. I want big. I want small. I'm desperate to hear them, so send them over. This season the Girlfriend Spotlight is supporting the charity Womankind Worldwide. They do amazing work to help women's rights organizations and movements to strengthen and grow. If you'd like to find out more or donate to help them secure equal rights for women and girls across the globe, you can go to womankind.org.uk the Girlfriend's Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit Novel Audio. The show is hosted by me, Anna Sinfield. This episode was written and produced produced by Jake Otyvich. Our assistant producer is Lucy Carr. Our researcher is Zayana Yusuf. The editor is Hannah Marshall. Max o' Brien and Craig Strachan are our executive producers. Production management from Joe Savage, Cherie Houston and Charlotte Wolf Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson. Music supervision by Jay Kotajevic, Nicholas Alexander and Anna Sinfield. Original music composed by Louisa Gerstein and Gemma Freeman. The series artwork was designed by Christina Lehmkul. Willard Foxton is Creative Director of Development and special thanks to Katrina Norvell, Carrie Lieberman and Will Pearson at iHeart Podcasts, as well as Carly Frankel and the whole team at WME.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Get your alibi ready for the week of October 10th because the hosts of Stuff They Don't Want you to Know, Buried Bones and Betrayal will be recording live on the first ever true crime voyage Sailing through the Caribbean with exclusively adult Virgin Voyager. And you're invited. It's five kid free nights of live podcasts, meet and greets, Halloween fun mixed with all the luxury. Virgin Voyages is known for stylish ships, award winning dining and sleek staterooms. Book [e-mail] truecrime wanna feel more creative.

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[Ryan Reynolds]

This is an iHeart podcast.