TH Man Charged with 1987 Assault
Friday, 18 November 2022
A Terre Haute man has been charged with sexually assaulting two girls in Rhode Island 35 years ago.
Frank Thies, 66, was arraigned Thursday on charges of first-degree child molestation and first-degree sexual assault. He is being held without bond.
The two victims in the case were 11 and 13 years old in April 1987, when they were forced into the woods in rural Rhode Island, authorities said. Investigators at the time retrieved physical evidence they believed came from the attacker, but they were not able to make an identification.
In recent years, investigators identified Thies by using DNA evidence from the attacker and comparing it against DNA databases, narrowing the pool of suspects to three brothers from Western New York and eventually to Thies.
