Police say a Loudoun County man was behind three sexual assault and exposure cases that all occurred in Fairfax County at least two decades ago.
According to the Fairfax County Police Department, detectives used DNA to identify Edward Eugene Pottmyer, 58, of Chantilly as the suspect in a 1998 sexual assault in Fair Lakes, a 2000 assault in the Penderbrook area and a 2004 exposure incident in Burke.
More on the cases from the FCPD, which announced Pottmyer’s arrest today (Thursday):
On September 9, 1998, around 7 p.m. the 48-year-old victim was jogging on a bike path in the Fair Lakes area when she was assaulted. The suspect implied he had a knife, sexually assaulted her then ran from the area.
On August 3, 2000, around 11 p.m., a suspect forced entry into a home in the 11900 block of Parkside Drive in Fairfax. The 66-year-old victim was asleep when she was awoken by the suspect assaulting her. The victim fought the suspect and escaped by jumping from a second story balcony and running away.
On December 6, 2004, around 10:45 p.m., the 51-year-old victim was in her basement in the 9900 block of Whitewater Drive in Burke. She observed a man exposing himself outside her sliding glass door. The victim yelled and the man ran away.
Detectives were able to recover forensic evidence from the scenes of all three cases, but a breakthrough didn’t come until recently, when the DNA evidence was submitted to the forensic geneology company Othram Inc, the FCPD says.
Othram, which has been credited with helping the police department solve multiple other cold cases, used genome sequencing “to develop a comprehensive profile” that linked Pottmyer to all three cases, police say.
“Detectives obtained Pottmyer’s DNA which positively identified him as the suspect,” the FCPD said.
Pottmyer was arrested on June 5 with the help of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and charged with forcible sodomy and abduction with the intent to defile. He is being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center without bond.
