Arrest, charges in 2008 sexual assault of senior citizen
For release on September 10, 2024
CONTACT:
Rob Baker
Deputy District Attorney
Cold Case Unit
(408) 792-2873
[email protected]
Arrest, charges in 2008 sexual assault of senior citizen
Whisenand courtesy of the Clay County Sheriff's Office.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has charged a man from a small Indiana city with the home invasion rape of an elderly woman in San Jose 15 years ago.
The victim died of natural causes in 2011. However, the DA’s Office was notified earlier this year that DNA left at the senior living apartment was matched to a 43-year-old sex crime registrant living more than 2,000 miles away.
On Monday, September 9, 2024, James Aaron Whisenand was taken into custody thanks to the assistance of Indiana State Police, the U.S. Marshals, the Clay County Sheriff, and the Brazil, Indiana Police Department. Authorities convinced Whisenand to come down to the local police department to fill out forms related to his sex registration. He was met by San Jose Police Department Special Victims Unit Sgt. Sean Pierce and Det. John Moutzouridis, the original detectives who investigated the case in 2008.
The Clay County Prosecutor’s Office is handling Whisenand’s extradition proceedings in Indiana. He is currently being held without bail pending his return to Santa Clara County. If convicted of all charges, Whisenand could be sentenced to life in prison.
“As our forensic technology grows, the reach of justice becomes longer,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. “We don’t forget or forgive those who hurt people in our community.”
On January 6, 2008, Whisenand entered the 61-year-old woman’s first-floor apartment on Saint Elizabeth Drive. Wearing a ski mask, Whisenand punched the victim in the face, breaking her nose, and then choked her before sexually assaulting her multiple times. No suspects were identified at the time.
In March 2024, the DA’s Office Crime Lab was notified that the suspect’s DNA from the crime scene, uploaded to the national CODIS database in 2008, matched Whisenand, a sex registrant for a misdemeanor sexual battery conviction in 2023. The DA’s Cold Case Unit, San Jose Police Department, and Crescent City Police Department worked together to confirm Whisenand’s DNA in August 2024.
Santa Clara County Court records show that in 2008, at the time of the rape, Whisenand lived with his then wife on Meridian Avenue, just two blocks from the victim’s senior living facility.
If anyone has any additional information about Whisenand, please call (408) 792-2466 or email [email protected].
The Cold Case Unit was established in 2011. Since that time, the DA’s Office has solved over 30 cold case murders as early as 1969. The Cold Case Unit added sexual assault investigations to its inventory in 2021 after receiving a federal grant. The DA’s Office has filed charges in over five cold case sexual assaults dating back as far as 1994.
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