Man pleads guilty to raping 13-year-old girl after breaking into her Cambridge home in 2000

A 41-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to raping a 13-year-old girl after breaking into her Cambridge home in October 2000.

“For twenty-three years, the victim in this case has lived with the mystery of who came into her bedroom and violently sexually assaulted her,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement on Tuesday. “Today, that woman, now thirty-seven years old and living outside of Massachusetts, had the opportunity to hear the defendant admit to what he had done to her. She was able, through her statement to the Court, to describe the impact of these events and the defendant’s actions on her life.”  

Roger Reddick, Jr., 41, of Cambridge was convicted on three counts of rape of a child by force, according to the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office. He was arrested in March following renewed focus on the cold case and new advances in DNA technology. At the time of the crime, he lived less than half a mile away from the victim’s home, the DA now says.

According to the DA’s office, during the early morning hours of October 18, 2000, a man, later identified as Reddick, entered the victim’s Cambridge home where she lived with her parents. When he reached her second floor bedroom, he rushed to the girl’s bed, covered his mouth with his hand, and ordered her to be quiet before repeatedly raping her. He asked the girl how old she was during the assault and she told him she was 13, according to the DA’s office.

When she was able, the girl ran out of her bedroom and screamed for help. The man ran down the stairs and out of the house into the street, the DA’s office said. 

Police responded to the scene but searched without success for the attacker. Investigators found a latent fingerprint on the exterior of a jewelry box, which in 2009 police were able to identify as being left by Reddick, but the DA’s office said they did not have sufficient evidence to charge him at the time. 

Boxer shorts were left behind at the foot of the girl’s bed and a pair of work boots were found at the bottom of the stairs, according to the DA’s office. Technology at the time could not develop a DNA profile, but when the case was re-examined in September 2022, investigators were able to identify Reddick as the source of the major DNA profile on the boxers using new technological advances.

Reddick was arrested in March and an oral swab taken from him was compared against the DNA from the boxers and other DNA from the scene. 

Reddick was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 to 12 years in state prison, according to the DA’s office.