Ohio AG takes fresh look at old sex assaults as Florida man faces charges in Erie County case

Authorities in Ohio said they are taking a fresh look at a rash of attacks on school-age girls in parts of the state in the early 2000s as law enforcement in Erie County await the arrival of a Florida man to face criminal charges in a similar incident.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, in a news release issued on Wednesday, said cold-case investigators in his office are reviewing seven reported sexual assault cases from 2001 to 2003 in Ashtabula, Lake and Summit counties and are seeking the public's help in solving them. The victims in those cases ranged in age from 11 to 18, according to the release.

Some similar cases occurred during the same time period in Erie County, including an attack in May 2003 on a 13-year-old girl in Springfield Township. The Pennsylvania State Police announced earlier this month that they had identified an unknown suspect in that attack through DNA evidence as Florida resident Daniel Danzinger, 61.

Danzinger, whom authorities said was an Ohio resident at the time of the incident, remains in custody in Florida. He is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania to face charges of burglary, indecent assault, unlawful restraint and simple assault in the attack.

State police: DNA links Florida man to 2003 sex assault of 13-year-old Springfield girl

In the news release issued by Yost's office, officials state that investigators believe the Ohio cases are linked to similar assaults in Pennsylvania from the same period. In addition to the assault in which Danzinger is charged, the Pennsylvania State Police continue to investigate an assault on an 11-year-old girl in Fairview Township in March 2003.

Erie police in June 2003 reported that a 17-year-old girl said she was grabbed by, but fought off, a man who opened an unlocked screen door at her West 35th Street home. Police said at the time that they were looking into whether the incident was possibly connected to an incident eight days earlier in which a 12-year-old girl reported being followed as she walked in her westside neighborhood.

More: Police working decades-old child assault cases as man charged in an Erie County crime

"This predator struck multiple counties in at least two states — behavior that suggests more victims might still be out there," Yost is quoted in the news release. "We urge them and anyone else with knowledge of similar attacks to contact our investigators. Your tips could solve this vicious crime spree."

Similarities in Ohio attacks

According to Yost's office, there are similarities in the Ohio incidents that make investigators believe the same man is possibly responsible for the attacks. In each of those cases, a man roughly 30 years old who posed as a salesman or repairman targeted girls who had just taken a school bus home. After knocking on a victim's door, the man asked for directions or for information on the home's occupants, likely to determine whether the victim was alone, according to information in the news release.

The suspect then asked to make a phone call and forced his way inside, officials wrote.

The man wore sunglasses and a baseball cap, and he sometimes carried a clipboard. He possibly drove a black or silver midsize sedan, according to the release.

In response to the attacks in the early 2000s, authorities formed a task force involving state and local law enforcement and the FBI in Pennsylvania and Ohio and set up a telephone tip line and a post office box to collect tips. The ongoing investigation included calling in members of the Ontario Provincial Police to conduct a "geo-profile," by looking at the locations of the offenses in an effort to determine where a suspect might live, a state police investigator said in 2004.

Police use DNA evidence to charge in Springfield case

State police developed a DNA profile from some evidence collected at the scene of the attack on the 13-year-old girl in Springfield Township in May 2003, according to information in Danzinger's criminal complaint. Based on that unknown profile, police filed charges against a John Doe in the attack in 2008.

State police said they eventually identified Danzinger as a suspect when the DNA profile was sent for genetic genealogy analysis. Two male siblings were considered persons of interest from that analysis, according to information in the criminal complaint.

The subsequent investigation, which involved the assistance of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, would lead police to Danzinger. In late September, investigators armed with a search warrant, obtained swabs from inside of Danzinger's mouth and sent them to the state police DNA lab. The profile from Danzinger was found to be a match to the profile from the Springfield Township assault, investigators wrote in the criminal complaint.

Anyone with information that could assist law enforcement in the ongoing investigation into the other assaults in Ohio and Erie County is asked to call the Ohio Attorney General Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 855-BCI-OHIO or Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Nicole Ludwig at 814-774-9611.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Ohio taking new look at sex assaults as man faces charges in Erie Co.