The Cranston Police Department has arrested 49-year-old David Finegan, of no permanent address, for the burglary and sexual assault of an 81-year-old woman.

Just after 1 a.m. on May 2, the Cranston Police investigated the sexual assault of the woman at her home on Fairweather Avenue. The elderly woman told police she did not recognize the suspect but believed he was a white male and she also stated she could not recognize the man’s voice. The woman’s son, who was home at the time, called police.

Cranston detectives worked several leads over the months that followed, including forensic DNA evidence turned over to the Rhode Island Department of Health for analysis. The break in the case came on June 10, when the Department of Health reported that they had a DNA profile to submit into the Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS), and on July 8 they reported that they had a partial DNA match. The hitch was, it matched a female inmate, so the focus of the investigation shifted to male siblings of the woman.

The legwork of the Cranston detectives revealed that one of the five males, David Finegan, was in close proximity of Fairweather Avenue on the night of the incident. Detectives Lee Podedworney and Erik Baccari worked closely with several agencies and learned that Finegan was possibly in the Newport area.

On July 14 David Finegan was taken into custody in Newport on a parole violation and was ordered held at the Adult Correctional Institution for the weekend. During that time, Podedworney and Baccari obtained a search warrant for a buccal swab of Finegan to collect a sample of his DNA. The next day, Finegan made bail and was set free and dropped out of sight. On July 21 detectives received confirmation that the DNA obtained from Finegan was a match to the DNA collected at the crime scene on May 2.

Detectives worked quickly to obtain a warrant to arrest Finegan. The Rhode Island State Police Fugitive Task Force, the Rhode Island Fusion Center and the Providence Police began looking for Finegan. A photograph of Finegan was posted on the Rhode Island’s Most Wanted website and, within days, detectives got an anonymous tip that Finegan was in Providence. He was found there and taken into custody by Cranston detectives.

Finegan is being charged with burglary and first-degree sexual assault. He is being held without bail at the ACI. A court records check revealed a number of prior arrests, including domestic assault, felony DWI, resisting arrest and other assaults dating back to 1991.

Cranston Police Chief Col. Marco Palombo commended and thanked the Rhode Island Department of Health Crime Lab and the assistance from the Providence and Rhode Island State Police that helped make the arrest possible.