DNA leads to convictions in 2 rapes in Baltimore County from the 1980s

The sexual assaults in Cockeysville happened exactly four years apart in the 1980s.

Each time, the perpetrator broke into a first-floor apartment, threatened a woman and raped her. The assaults were only separated by a half mile. And for decades, they went unsolved.

In 2023, Baltimore County Police identified a suspect. And DNA testing confirmed that he was the assailant.

On Monday, James Shipe Sr., 73, of Parkville, was found guilty in Baltimore County Circuit Court of charges including rape, sex offenses and burglary. The verdict came one day after the anniversary of the attacks.

“Time marches on. Times catches up to us all eventually,” Assistant State’s Attorney John Magee said in his closing argument. “It took much longer than we had hoped, but time caught up to James Shipe.”

Circuit Judge Garret Glennon Jr. said he will sentence Shipe later Monday.

Shipe raped one of the women on Windy Cliff Place on Sept. 13, 1982. He sexually assaulted the other woman on Barretts Delight Drive on Sept. 13, 1986.

They each went to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where Dr. Rudiger Breitenecker between 1977 and 1997 preserved biological material on slides in more than 2,000 cases.

Magee highlighted the foresight of the doctor to take, keep and preserve those slides. Now, he said, two powerful women could finally receive justice.

“Justice delayed is not justice denied,” Magee said.

Shipe was originally charged in five rapes that happened between 1978 and 1986, but two of the women later died. Prosecutors are deciding whether to move forward on charges of rape, sex offenses and burglary in the remaining case.

Shipe’s attorney, Joe Pappafotis, said there was no question that a crime happened. But he said his client was not the attacker.

“This is a case of whether or not the state has met their burden,” Pappafotis said in his closing argument.

Pappafotis criticized the information presented at trial as “more say so than evidence,” noting that some of the witnesses who testified did not conduct critical testing themselves in the case. He asked the jury to find his client not guilty of all charges.

Shipe has been incarcerated in the Baltimore County Detention Center.

This story will be updated.