Maryland brothers charged with raping 34-year-old: police

Two Maryland brothers were identified this week as the two men who brutally raped a Virginia woman 34 years ago based on DNA technology, police said.

George Thomas Jr. and the late Gregory Allen Thomas of Arlington were eventually caught as the sneaks who forced a 22-year-old woman into her car and repeatedly raped her in August 1988, Fairfax County Police said.

George, 61, was arrested Monday at a Maryland train station. His brother Gregory died in 2009.

“In this case, justice will be delayed, but justice will not be denied,” Chief Kevin Davis said during a Tuesday news briefing.

The two brothers are said to have followed their victim, who was never identified by police, as she left her workplace at Skyline Mall at 10:40 p.m. and went into the parking garage.

George and Gregory forced them into their car and drove them to a remote and wooded location, Major Ed O’Carroll said.

After defiling their victim, the brothers again forced her back into their 1987 Ford Escort and forced her to drive to another location, where they again raped her, police said.

The woman was able to escape after the second attack and called the police. Fairfax County officials amassed a “rich body of forensic evidence,” O’Carroll said. The victim remembered the face of one of the brothers well enough for police to create a composite sketch.

“It’s remarkable — the resemblance is uncanny,” Davis said.

Despite the pile of DNA evidence and numerous leads requested, police haven’t been able to find a match in Virginia or national databases as of 2022, which officials attribute to recent advances in DNA technology.

An FCPD fingerprint examiner compared in-vehicle fingerprints to newly available arrest records in the Alexandria database that matched Gregory and George, O’Carroll said.

Although Gregory died 13 years ago, police confirmed through DNA analysis that he was involved in the sadistic attack.

Police collected further DNA from George before arresting him by collecting a cigar he was smoking and discarding.

“Maybe he smoked his last cigar. They don’t give prison cigars,” O’Carroll said.

“If it hadn’t been a match, we would have moved on. it was a game He raped our victim in 1988.”

Police believe the brothers have been involved in crimes other than the horrific 1988 rape in recent decades.

George denies involvement in the three-decade-old attack and told police he was unfamiliar with the case, officials said.

“I disagree. My detectives disagree. The evidence is plentiful and clear,” O’Carroll said.

George faces double rape, bestiality and kidnapping. He is being held in a detention center in Maryland but extradited to Virginia.

“He’s going to spend this Thanksgiving and hopefully many, many, many Thanksgivings in prison for the crimes that he committed,” Davis said.