Mercury News: Sunnyvale Detective Goes Undercover as Busboy to Nab Child-Rape Cold Case Suspect

In March 1996, a 7-year-old girl identified as Jane Doe in court documents was at home with family members when she answered the phone in the kitchen and spoke with a man who said he was a doctor, according to a court filing by a Sunnyvale police detective.

When the caller asked for her address, she told him. She also answered a second call soon after, believed to be from the same man, who told her he was nearby and she should sneak out without telling her family. Outside, the man met her and led her into a side yard, where he raped her, Sunnyvale Det. Matthew Hutchison wrote in the filing.

The girl was examined, and her clothing was sent for testing, which showed a DNA profile from a male. But there was no one in the FBI’s DNA database matching that profile.

Twenty-seven years later, the detective finally got a match: In an extraordinary scheme, Hutchison went undercover as a busboy at an Irish bar on St. Patrick’s Day to collect the half-eaten hot wings, beer cup and two plastic straws that authorities say finally brought a now 59-year-old San Jose man to justice.