A fugitive from Louisiana has been arrested in the rape of a 12-year-old girl after a DNA match, Colorado Springs police said Thursday night.
The girl was walking to a school-bus stop in the 400 block of East Brookside Street on Oct. 24 when a man pulled her into an alley and assaulted her, according to police.
Leonard Palmer and another convict who had escaped from a Louisiana prison were captured in Colorado Springs the night of the rape.
Palmer had been extradited to Louisiana before being linked to the girl’s rape.
When the sketch of the rapist was released, an officer noticed that he resembled Palmer. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s lab informed Colorado Springs police Thursday that DNA from the crime scene was a perfect match to Palmer.
