CLEVELAND, Ohio - A 72-year-old Lower Salem, OH man accused in the 1997 rape of a nine-year-old boy in Brooklyn is expected to plead guilty in front of Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Timothy McCormick Thursday afternoon.
According to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley, his office’s Genetic Operations Linking DNA Unit tracked down Dennis Gribble, previously known as John Doe #147.O’Malley said the child was walking alone around the woods near North Amber Drive and Plainfield Avenue in Brooklyn when he saw Gribble.
Gribble allegedly told him his son was riding around on a dirt bike and he needed help finding a gas can.Brooklyn police officers transported the boy to a local hospital where a sexual assault kit evidence was collected. In 2021, that evidence was submitted to Gene by Gene, a genealogy vendor working with the G.O.L.D Unit and Prosecutor O’Malley said Gribble’s DNA was connected to the assault.
Investigators then obtained Gribble’s DNA and sent it to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation to be tested, where it came back as a positive match, said O’Malley.